The Ghost and The Darkness
by Spam5192
Summary: Shadow The Hedgehog may be the Ultimate Lifeform, but he, like everyone else, is dependent on Chaos. But when suddenly, Chaos, all around the world, begins to die. It is left up to him to save the world and gets help, from a very unexpected and somewhat supernatural ally.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**

Shadow The Hedgehog may be the Ultimate Lifeform, but he, like everyone else, is dependent on Chaos. But when suddenly, Chaos, all around the world, begins to die. It is left up to him to save the world and gets help, from a very unexpected and somewhat supernatural ally.

**Chapter Contents**

Chapter One – Chaos

Chapter Two – Tragedy

Chapter Three – Saviour

Chapter Four – Artificial

Chapter Five – Eclipse

Chapter Six – Emeralds

Chapter Seven – Loyalties

Chapter Eight – Sacrifice

Chapter Nine – Eggman

Chapter Ten – Beginnings

**Chapter One – Chaos**

Chaos. It is the energy created by all living things. Great respect are afforded the those who can wield it. Despite that, all life was also dependant on it, to some degree. The more powerful you were with Chaos, the more you life depended on it.

Nobody understood this more, then Shadow The Hedgehog.

Created at a time, when little was known about Chaos, by a species that knew even less. Humans. On a space station orbiting their planet, Earth, not Mobius, where it now currently lies. Shadow laid back his chair, where he was currently sat, and thought. A lot had happened since then. He had left Earth far behind, and moving his home, the Ark, here, settling around this new planet. But that happened a long time ago, not long after his awakening. When Eggman awoke him from his slumber, he nearly destroyed Earth, and would have succeed if it wasn't for that irritating Blue Hedgehog. As a result the Ark, got transported here, with Chaos Control, to the orbit of Mobius, where it has remained ever since.

Adjusting to life down on the planet below, took some time. He also had he own freedoms and choices to deal with, something he has never had to do before.

But he also wasn't very welcome. The people of Mobius didn't want him, upon hearing of what Shadow nearly did to Earth and it had taken years to slowly gaining their trust, certainly enough to travel the planet unhindered.

Despite that, he liked Mobius as a whole, it had a lot to offer both legal and illegally, which suited someone like him, perfectly. Even so, Shadow always found himself always returning to the Ark. It was his home, he was created here.

Shadow put his head on his hand and sighed. He was sat, alone, at the main Console of the Ark watching the monitors ahead of him. More then a dozen screens, all showing him at once, all aspects of life down on the planet. He monitored everything. With all the screens working at once, he was more then capable of keeping up, his brain was easily fast enough.

They showed Eggman mostly but he also had his hand in watching that irritating Blue Hedgehog as well. Shadow eyes fell on the screen watching Tails' House. All was quiet. No one to be seen.

The Blue Blur intrigued him. Shadow found him incredibly irritating and yet, he kept getting curious about him. There was something about him that made him more different then your usual Sapient. Well, Chaos-Sapient, anyway. Shadow and the others, the Sapients, fell into two categories, those who could wield Chaos and those who could not. A Chaos-Sapient was someone with any kind of Chaos-Based power, be it, Chaos-Strength, Super-Speed, Heighten Awareness, or even Psychokinesis, in Silver's case. Tails, whom Shadow considered as knowledgable as himself on Chaos was not a Chaos-Sapient, he knew everything about Chaos but he just couldn't wield it. Those powers tended to be from birth, and Chaos-Sapients where known to the Authorities and often ranked by a Chaos Power Level. The higher the level, the more powerful you were with Chaos.

Shadow, of course, was top of the list, at Level Nine. He could wield more Chaos, in more ways then anyone. But there were many others on the list, not far behind him, mainly the Blue Blur at Level Eight. How that annoying speedster made it to Level Eight, Shadow didn't know. Vector, Big the Cat and of course, Knuckles, were some names he knew. Silver was on there to for his mental abilities, as well as himself and Sonic. Shadow noticed one significant thing about the list. All named upon it, all had Chaos-Strength including himself, except for Sonic and Silver. Not including Silver, Sonic was the only person with a physical Chaos ability on the list without Chaos-Strength. This, Shadow found, to be very strange.

Without Chaos-Strength, how did the Blue Hedgehog survive the incredible acceleration forces asserted on him when using Super-Speed? As far as Shadow knew, you needed incredible strength to withstand such forces. Therefore, how was he even alive? That was one question Shadow had about Sonic, another was his Chaos generation. OK, all Sapients generate Chaos, but the amount per person was normally minuscule, but collectively, everyone generated enough Chaos to feed the entire planet.

Shadow could see it. The Chaos. The only person on the planet who could, without a specialist device. The normally invisible energy emanated in a range of colours from each sapient, of which to Shadow, created an Aura around each of them. That was another reason why he liked the planet, the colours. But Sonic was different. He generated so much Chaos that he shone, to Shadow, as brightly as the Sun. The brilliant white light took some getting used to, and it took Shadow some time to realise that he and he alone could see it, especially when they first met.

Shadow smirked to himself, in his thoughts. It was the reason why the annoying Blue Blur could never sneak up on him, not with a beacon like that, despite several attempts. Shadow never told him, and had no intention too either.

But how? How was Sonic able to generate so much Chaos? Shadow leaned forwards onto the Console desk, put his head in his hand, and sighed again. There was a good chance that even Sonic himself didn't know. He'd just always been that way.

Strange.

Shadow did admit to one thing to himself, he did enjoy being in Sonic's company, despite the irritation. For two main reasons, one, he was way to easy to bully, falling for it every time, and two, his Chaos generation. When it came to Chaos, Shadow and Sonic were complete order to survive, Shadow consumed Chaos, large quantilesof it. He couldn't generate it for himself, the only living thing on Mobius that didn't. But he feed off Chaos Energy like no other creature in the planet. He barely needed to eat, drink or sleep because of it. As an immortal, Shadow could survive absolutely anything so long as he had access to Chaos. Without it, he was nothing. So if Shadow went to an area that had low Chaos, he would become weak and potentially pass out relatively quickly, never to wake. It had nearly happened several times over the years, as the spread of Chaos around the planet was very uneven.

But hanging around Sonic, he never had that problem. Sonic seemed to generate Chaos as fast as Shadow consumed it and therefore he never went 'hungry' around him.

Shadow closed his eyes. The answers about his Blue counterpart were not coming any time soon, so he moved on. He was bored. Today was a slow day. A very slow day. He leaned back in his chair and stretched. His large sleek black body lengthening, outstretching his white gloved fingers, and twisting his wrists, his gold rings upon them, shining. His long red stripes down both his arms and legs, glistenedin the lights of the Ark, his black upturned quills with their magnificent red stripes, on his head and flowing down his back behind him. His white chest fur looking somewhat rough in this late hour of the day. He opened his eyes, his deep crimson iris', glowing red occasionally as the Chaos Darkness within him took hold. He let it, he had no reason to stop it.

Chaos, when generated, is pure, it is neither Light nor Dark. It becomes Light or Dark depending on the user, the person wielding it. Most Chaos-Sapients were Chaos Light, Shadow was Chaos Dark, and he loved it. He loved nothing more then to be a creature of Darkness, to be different, to be evil. He was created as a creature of Darkness, why should he change? He may not fight for the bad guys anymore, but he is still a 'bad guy'. Hence the bullying. Anything to get one over that Blue idiot.

But Shadow sighed. He thought about that the Blue Blur again and how he'd completely misjudged him, when they first met. Shadow thought he was a total push over, when first started regularly working together. Back when Shadow first joined the 'good' guys. He wanted to push the Blue Hedgehog, find out just how far he'd go. The answer was, very, but Shadow completely underestimated him. He'd heard stories about his infamous temper but never believed it, let alone witness it first-hand. Very few people had. The Blue Blur lost his temper so rarely, until that fateful day.

He didn't just loose his temper, he completely changed. When Shadow looses his temper, he just gets more evil and more violent, but this was different. His Blue counterpart would change, the Chaos within him, would turn from Light to Dark. But not just any Dark Chaos, the purest Shadow ever seen, creating malice so cold that even he feared it. He never believed he was capable of such Darkness. He physically changed as well, turning completely black, his quills elongating and turning upwards and his eyes had no pupils or irises. His skin is a dark grey colour, a dark Blue aura around him.

Way out of his league, Shadow was forced to ask for help as he couldn't contain the extreme temper alone. It took the extraordinarycooperative effort of both Tails and Eggman to finally calm the Blue Blur. Leaving Shadow with a deep respect for him, despite his idiotic nature. Shadow also had to promise to never ever push him that far again, something he's kept to this very day. As a result, Shadow never underestimates the Blue Hedgehog for, well, anything and is, now, very careful around him. He can still have his fun, though, especially nowadays, considering how well he knows the Blue Blur. But it has taken years.

Shadow shook himself, his mind was wondering again. Time to get back to what he came to the Ark's main Console to research.

The Source.

He had been doing some serious calculations in recent months. For the simple reason, that something didn't feel right. That Chaos wasn't balanced. Shadow was that sensitive to such things and it drove him mad. So he calculated the amount of Chaos that each living thing generated verses the amount of Chaos available on the planet. It didn't match. He was right. Even with Sonic's overactive Chaos generation, it still didn't match. There was far more Chaos available on the planet then could be generated by all the lifeforms living upon it. So, where did it extra come from? This surplus Chaos was an incredibly vast quantity, and if it was to disappear, it would properly take the rest of Chaos with it.

Shadow feared that, more then anything. It was his only fear. The death of all Chaos. With it, it would mean the end of him, and potentially all life on Mobius. He was going to be dammed if he was going to let that happen. Shadow very much liked to have full control of everything, and very much wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery.

So, he had been searching for it. The Source of this excess Chaos. It had to have been generated somewhere. Chaos Energy doesn't just appear out of thin air. Shadow did have the thought that it might be created artificially, but found no evidence to that fact.

Shadow was very frustrated and very bored. Months of searching and nothing. Hence his mind kept wondering.

'Could the planet itself create it?' He randomly thought. Shadow mentally slapped himself, for thinking of such a stupid suggestion. Only 'living' creatures create Chaos, the planet was bare rock and earth, nothing more. But that thought, gave Shadow a lightbulb moment. He'd been looking in completely the wrong place. For such a large quantity of Chaos, Shadow had got it into his head, that it must be some kind of factory creating it. He throw that idea out, that was very much Eggman's influence. Maybe it was simpler, because all life depended on Chaos and all Chaos depended on life.

'Therefore..' Shadow thought. 'The Source must be something living.' He mulled it over in his head. But it didn't make sense. As far as he knew, Sonic generated the most Chaos of anyone he knew, but nowhere near enough to meet the surplus. So what else? He rubbed his eyes, it was getting late.

'Come on!' He thought, frustrated again. 'Think!' He fumed.

If the Source was a living creature, then what could it be?

'Or who?' He thought again. 'And how was it generating such Chaos?' He added.

Shadow screwed his eyes up, desperate to think, bringing together all of the knowledge he'd ever acquired on Chaos into something that made sense.

Then it hit him, hard.

So hard, in fact, that it caused him to sit bolt upright, both frightened and stunned.

The Source, he knew what it was, and it did indeed frighten him. This seriously shook Shadow up. Fright was not an emotion he was not used to. But if what he had just realised turned out to be true, then death to them all.

The Source was indeed a living creature, but whose powers didn't generate the Chaos like Sonic's but their very Life-Force did. Simply being alive was enough the generate the Chaos. The Source didn't need to be a Chaos-Sapient, they could be just an ordinary person going about their business, never knowing the truth.

That meant that it could be literally, anyone and Shadow would have no way of knowing, either. Even though it was the Life-Force that generated the Chaos, it remained very much hidden. He could detect Chaos, but never a person's Life-Force.

But what really got to Shadow, was the fact if the Source was to die, then it would potentially take all Chaos with it. But this seriously confused the Black Hedgehog.

'What would Chaos put all of it eggs in one basket like that?' He thought. He didn't understand. But then Shadow got the impression that Chaos never meant to. Thinking back to what he knew about the history of Chaos on Mobius, and the creation of the Chaos Emeralds, he realised that, in the past, there must have been multiple bloodlines involved. Whose Life-Forces generated the Chaos. But with Mobius' various wars and purges over the generations, Chaos was now down to just one last survivor.

The Source.

But who was he? Or she? And was he even a hundred percent sure it was just one, there could be others. Shadow didn't know, and prayed that there were others, but he had no way of knowing, but his instincts kept telling him he was properly dealing with just one.

And who were these bloodlines? Shadow had no clue. Nothing in the history of Chaos, named any names, plus it would been in these families best interests to stay hidden. Any chances of finding any leads here were zero.

Shadow looked back to the screens ahead of him, monitoring the planet below. Death hadn't found the Source yet, but Shadow, being immortal, knew it was simply a matter of time. The Source was mortal, their born, they live, they die, that's the rules.

'Unless they breed.' Shadow smirked to himself, but then tried to get the rather grotesque image out of his head. To think that his fate relied on some punk mortal breeding, was more then he could stand. He growled.

'There had better be more!' he hissed to himself.

Shadow sighed again and sat back in his chair. Now it was getting really late, time to retire for the night. He didn't sleep but he liked to relax with a good book. One had caught his eye, both extremely gory and very erotic, his absolute favorite. Time to recharge.

There was a meeting scheduledat Tails' House, tomorrow morning.

Yes, he was going to be there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two – Tragedy**

Shadow was intrigued. The meeting at Tails' House had been arranged extremely last minute, and he wondered what was going on. Did it have something to do with Eggman? Shadow had all eyes on Eggman, twenty-four seven, nothing that revolting Human did went unnoticed by him. If it was to do with Eggman, it was new information.

He arrived at the house, bang on time, and entered, letting himself in. The front door entered straight into a large open-plan lounge-kitchen-diner which was in a large L-shape, the small kitchen was set towards the back of the house and the lounge towards the front. There wasn't exactly a dining room there, but a large breakfast bar which was doubled as kitchen work surface. The lounge took up all of the front of the house, along the longest edge of the L shaped room and there were sofas everywhere. All misshaped, all different sizes and colours. There was enough space to sit ten to twenty people. To the side of the kitchen was the staircase, which run up through the centre of the house and the other side of that was another large room. It was separate from the open-plan living space and could only be entered and exited by a single door. It was Tails' Workshop.

All of the usuals were there, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Team Choatix, (Vector, Espio and Charmy), Rouge and Omega, and Silver and Blaze. In fact, Shadow was unusually the one of the last to arrive. Everyone looked at him as he walked in, and as he did, he notice someone else was missing. The great Blue idiot himself, Sonic.

Shadow took his usual place in the shadows of the corner of the room, and waited. Now he was really curious. Where was the stupid Blue Blur? This was practically his house, he lived here. Shadow never came here without seeing him constantly showing off, and was very surprised when Tails started the meeting without him.

"Hello!" He called raising his hands. He sounded extremely nervous. He got instant silence, far faster then usual. Shadow guessed that he wasn't the only one who'd noticed Sonic's absence. There were looks of concerns all around the room.

"Thank you for attending this emergency meeting." Tails stammered. "I have unfortunate news." He paused, with baited breath, like he couldn't bring himself to say the next part. He sighed.

"Sonic's been captured!" He cried.

Shadow looked up from his thoughts.

What!

There were multiple gasps from all around the room.

Well, Eggman kept that quiet. Shadow had absolutely no knowledge of this. But he was surprised. How did Eggman manage it? Sonic is almost impossible to capture, too fast and too slippery. Shadow knew this only to well, having tried and failed to capture him himself.

Tails raised his hands again for calm.

"As far as I can tell, he's alright." He stammered. "He was on a recon mission, alone, when Eggman surprised and captured him." He sighed.

Shadow was not surprised at that. Sonic often did recon missions alone, but how could he be so careless? Granted, Eggman had upped the security in recent weeks, but Sonic should have been prepared for that. But there was something else that was bothering him. Why should Eggman capture Sonic? Why not kill him outright? That was what Eggman had always wanted.

Regardless, Tails was asking for a rescue mission, and there was only one person in that room, experienced enough for the job.

Shadow.

He swore very loudly. A rescue mission was not what he'd planned today. But all eyes were on him.

He growled, not happy at all with the situation. He walked from the shadows near the wall and took centre stage in the middle of the room. At least find out more information, before deciding whether or not to help.

"Where?" he hissed, barely a whisper leaving his mouth. Tails gulped.

"District 27, Sector 32." He stammered the answer. The whole area had been divided up by Eggman into Districts and Sectors, making it very easy to locate, well, anything. Shadow smirked, he knew the place, it wasn't very far from Tails' House at all.

"Ah!" Shadow hissed, again. "Eggman's brand new Base." His lip curled.

Tails looked stunned.

"How do you know that?" He asked automatically.

Shadow rolled his eyes. Stupid question, Tails!

Tails did know about the Ark, but didn't know to true extent of which Black Hedgehog used it. Shadow didn't answer but as far was he was concerned, this Base was not of any interest. It was unfinished, empty. No fixtures, fittings, or robots, nothing. Just a shell.

But the Shadow was confused, why recon an empty Base?

"Why there?" He spat. "It's empty!" He growled, stating the obvious.

Tails eye's widened, and he went very white.

"Er..." Tails stammered again. "We didn't know that." He sounded incredibly embarrassed.

"We were going on just the floor plans of the Base. The blue prints I had managed to steel from Eggman." Tails paused. Shadow raised an eyebrow, to steel anything from Eggman and get away with it, was impressive. The fox continued.

"The Base is huge, nearly four times larger then any other Base, and it doesn't look it from the surface, because most of it..." He paused and stomped right up to Shadow.

"Is underground!" He spat.

Shadow's eyes widened, he had no knowledge of this. The Ark showed no signs of an underground Base in the area. Tails smiled.

"I think Eggman knows your watching him. Why draw attention to yourself when you've showing nothing more then an empty Base. Sonic thought it was a front for something bigger. Why else would the Base be so large? You weren't going to tell us. Hell, there was a good chance you didn't even know." He paused and sighed. "I asked him to wait and to talk to you first, but he insisted on going in, alone, and..." He let the sentence hang and looked up at Shadow, who'd been stunned into silence. Tails bit his lip. "...He hasn't come back!" He cried. He grabbed Shadow's hand in desperation, making the Black Hedgehog extremely uncomfortable. "Please!" He begged. "Bring him back!" he squealed.

Shadow looked at the Fox, forcible removing his hand from Tails, hissing, very coldly. He wasn't going to promise anything. It was that stupid Hedgehog's fault for getting himself caught, why should he pick up the pieces? He'd rescue Rouge and even Omega, the only two people on the planet he considered friends, but the Blue idiot, no. But missing the truth about that Base, that annoyed him greatly. He was keen to investigate for himself. Without a word, he pushed past Tails, towards the front door.

"SHADOW!" Someone was shouting at him.

He knew the voice. Rouge. He had great respect for that Bat but there were times, like now, when she really annoyed him. She barged forwards. Shadow looked at her, smirking.

"How DARE you!" She spat, Shadow was being extremely rude.

"Help us. Please!" She pleaded.

Shadow curled his lip. He'd made up his mind. He'd made his choice and was sticking with it.

"No!" He hissed, simply. Rouge squealed, but Shadow silenced her.

"I will investigate the Base." He paused, growling. "If I find that Blue idiot..." But Tails' cries cut across him.

"Don't call him that!" He wailed. Shadow ignored him but smirked. He'd called Sonic far worser things then 'Blue idiot'. He continued.

"If I find that Blue idiot..." He repeated. "I'll bring him back. If I don't, then I won't!" He spat, very coldly. In other words, he wouldn't go looking for him. This was Shadow's one and only offer. Take it or leave it. He smirked again. He knew why they were all so desperate to have their precious Blue Blur back. He'd been watching them all for weeks. It was Sonic's birthday within the next few days, and they had all been planning the biggest party of the year for him. All in secret, of course. Shadow knew that that was completely pointless, you could never keep anything secret from Sonic. But the Blue Blur had hit a milestone. Seventeen. Nearly old enough to become an adult. Shadow despised party's, and hadn't planned on attending and as it currently looked, neither was Sonic.

But you can't have a birthday party without the birthday boy. As he looked around, and saw one desperate face after another, he began to feel guilty. Silently, and without another word, he pushed past Rouge and out the front door into the warm daylight of the beautiful Summer's day. He gritted his teeth.

Shadow hated guilt, with a passion. After Maria's death on the Ark, his one and only true friend and love, the emotion, along with grief, nearly ruined his life. As far as he knew, he'd buried them both. He had to, just to move on. But the guilt had resurfaced. Eager to get the emotion gone for good, he changed his mind.

He was going to rescue Sonic. He just wasn't going to tell his friends.

Shadow returned to the Ark, to prepare. No point storming the Base in broad daylight, better the wait until nightfall. He recalibrated the Ark to reexamine the empty Base at District 27, Sector 32. Specifically using ground penetrating radar (scanning a lot deeper then usual) and thermal imaging cameras, two senses on the Ark, Shadow didn't normally use.

After several hours of processing, he finally got an image back, and it confirmed everything Tails had said. Shadow swore, both the Fox and Eggman had one upped him. How could he have missed it? Indeed, the surface Base was empty, but the underground sections were, very much, not. Eggman must have known that he'd loose interest in an apparently empty Base, and look elsewhere. It worked. Shadow was reeling, not happy at all, to have been made a fool of. Fuming, he looked back at the image and frowned when it spotted something.

In the image, Shadow could see that the underground sections of the Base, where full of equipment, but however, there was a large cavern-like space in the centre of the Base. Quite deep underground so the image was somewhat fuzzy. Within that space, was something very large with extremely long legs. Shadow couldn't make out more then that and was curious as to what it could be. Either way, he didn't like the look of it. He sighed.

He decided what he was going to do. Blow the Base. Go in, set charges, grab Sonic, and get out. Boom! He smirked. Should make for a decent explosion, as Eggman's Bases always did. Assuming that is, that Sonic was still there. He searched through all of the footage of Eggman over the last week and saw no evidence that he had tried to move the Hedgehog. He would have to have done it under extremely high security to avoid the Blue Blur escaping, so Shadow would, very much, have noticed. There was nothing, so Sonic was indeed, still there.

As the sun began to set, Shadow gathered everything he needed and teleported to the surface. He didn't need to Chaos Control too and from the Ark. He carried a portable teleporter, built with Eggman's technology. Specifically design to do exactly that job and teleport nowhere else. It saved on energy as Chaos Control is very draining when used regularly.

He landed a few hundred metres from the Base. The apparently empty Base in question. It was pitch black, just a few dim lights from the Base lit the area. Not a problem for the Black Hedgehog, as his perfect night-vision could make it out perfectly.

It looked deserted.

But Shadow knew otherwise, and began his assault on the Base.

The surface portion of the Base, was undefended and easy broken into. He met no one. No alarms went off, nothing. This was as expected, as the more interesting stuff was underground. Shadow had memorised the image of the full Base from the Ark, but still had a lot of difficulty finding an entrance to the underground sections.

Eventually, he found it, and broke through.

Suddenly blinded by the lights that filled the area, compared to unlit surface portions, Shadow was forced to dive for cover as a security robot went past. Very close by him. He wasn't spotted. It took him some time to adjust to the new lighting, and when it became clear, he saw a hive of activity ahead of him. Worker robots seemed to be running around working on new machines, with designs that he immediately recognised. They were Gerald Robotnik's designs. This confused Shadow greatly.

'Why invest time and effort into fifty years old robot designs?' He thought. Maybe even older. Yes, they have been tweaked slightly, but essentially remain the same. He didn't understand, these designs were obsolete, out-of-date, of no use to anyone. After looking around the various corridors, rooms and workshops in the underground Base, Shadow has seen enough. Time to set the charges.

After setting the charges all around the Base, he found no one but worker robots, who were easy to avoid. Shadow decided to search out the large cavern-like room in the centre of the Base. He knew he was getting close when he heard voices.

"Come on, Egg-Head!" A familiar, somewhat bored, voice droned. "What you planning with 'Leggy' over there?" It sighed.

"Like I'd tell you, Hedgehog!" A second voice spat back.

Shadow smirked, he'd found them. But then he frowned. What was 'Leggy'? He rolled his eyes. It was the Blue idiot and the Human. Sonic was being his usual annoying mocking self, but there was a layer of tiredness underneath it all that Shadow couldn't help but notice. Not normal for the Blue Blur at all. Granted, he'd not seen Sonic in person, for what, several months, and Shadow had gotten the impression that a lot had happened in that time. Beyond what he had seen from the Ark. The Human, just sounded his usual ugly self, but with an air of narcissism at having captured Sonic. He sounded pompous.

"And how are you going to stop me from in there?" Eggman leered. There was silence as Sonic's comeback wasn't immediate. This in itself, was odd.

"I always find a way, Eggman!" He eventually, spat back, unimpressed as the currently situation. Then, silence again.

Frowning, Shadow rounded the corner of a corridor and looked through a door, to finally find his quarry. The cavernous space of the room, was massive. Full of worker robots, franticly building something very large in the centre. He could see Sonic, in a dungeon, imprisoned behind, some kind of forcefield .At the far end of the cavern, opposite him. He immediately caught his attention.

The Blue Hedgehog, looked bored. He looked fed up, and he looked awful. Shadow stared at him from across the room, out of sight. The normally immaculately well-kept Hedgehog was looking very rough around the edges and extremely tired. He was sat on his bed, in his dungeon. His long, royal blue quills flowing down his back, were incredibly battered and broken in places. His long legs, dangling over the edge of the bed, swaying too and fro, were badly matted, and his cherry red shoes with the famous red stripe could barely be seen under the thick layer of dirt, they had now acquired. His white gloved hands, which were badly worn were supporting himself on the edge of the bed as he sat there. He silencing watched Eggman carefully, as though talking, was just now, too much effort. His bright green eyes appeared tired and sunken in, and if it wasn't for the fact that Sonic had spoken first before Shadow saw him, he wouldn't have recognised him.

He could also see that Sonic showed no signs of being in a fight, no injuries, bruising or cuts. This confused Shadow. What had happened? With no idea, he wasn't entirely sure if Sonic had the strength to escape with him.

Shadow cursed to himself. He couldn't give up on the Blue idiot. He wouldn't give up on him, and the least he could do was return the favour.

He surveyed more of the cavernous space and saw that the very large item between them was actually a giant robot. Very near completion. With eight long legs and an large abdomen. It looked a giant robot spider, a Tarantula. With a space in the middle of the body for Eggman to place his flying pod, the Egg Mobile. Now knowing what Sonic meant by 'Leggy' it was dark in colour, and incredibly ugly. Shadow didn't fancy fighting that machine, or at least, not alone. He had to give Sonic a chance. He knew that together, the two of them were an incredible team, that could potentially destroy anything Eggman threw at them. He also saw that breaking the Blur Blur out would trigger the fight, so the timing was crucial.

Foreseeing that a fight was imminent, Shadow began surveying the spider for any weaknesses. It looked incredibly well built, made of solid titaniumand reenforced steel. But as Shadow evaluated the situation, he realised that they didn't need to defeat the robot spider outright, just to distract it long enough to get out. The charges would do the rest, and blew that spider along with the rest of the Base, to kingdom come.

Also, Shadow noticed, the spider filled the entire cavernous space. He smirked, he could certainly use that to his advantage, as well as another weakness he'd spotted. The worker robots were getting closer and closer to his position, he decided now was the time. He couldn't hang around, as the charges he had set were all on timers.

In his rocket shoes, Shadow super-sped around the outside edge of the cavernous room and before Eggman could stop him, he'd curled into a ball and super-spinned straight into the electronic lock at the side of Sonic's forcefield vanished. Sonic, quick to see what was happening, super-sped himself out of there, along with Shadow across the room underneath the spider.

"Thanks." He panted. "I was beginning to wonder where you were!" He heaved. Shadow frowned. The Blue Blur was out of breath. Shadow had never seen Sonic out of breath before. He had the speed, but he seemed to struggle to maintain it. Shadow huffed. That comment! Was Sonic expecting him?

But he never had the chance to enquire, as the Eggman had quickly sat himself in the giant spider and completely barred them from leaving. As expected.

The two Hedgehogs screeched to a halt, turning around, standing side-by-side. Shadow smirked, he loved fights against Eggman and took a sideways glance at Sonic. The Blue Hedgehog was still heaving, but ready to give it his all.

He still didn't understand but now was not the time, they had a fight. Their favourite kind of fight, a super-speed spinball fight. To super-spin into a ball and super-Speed at the enemymultiple times. With such a large robot in such a confined space, it was perfect.

Shadow's smirk broadening.

"Go for the..." He hissed, but Sonic cut across him.

"Leg joints?" He grinned. Shadow nodded.

"Way ahead of you, Shads!" Sonic smiled and with that, he vanished, spinning into a ball and speeding off at the spider.

He watched Sonic spin through air as expertly as himself and noticed that his body, more specifically his skeleton bent with the acceleration forces rather them resist against them, like his did. He'd never noticed this before. Shadow frowned.

'How can a skeleton bend?' He thought, but then using his medical knowledge as a geneticist he'd gain from Gerald Robotnik, he realised that Sonic skeleton must have been made of cartilage, not bone.

'An entire skeleton made of cartilage, thats impossible' He thought again, but as he watched Sonic use his super-speed, it was the only explanation that fit. To withstand the forces and be so lightweight. Shadow smirked and would like the opportunity to examine Sonic further, but that would meant admitting his curiosityto him, and that wasn't happening.

He sighed. Then a spider leg narrowly missing him, which snapped him out of his thoughts and into attacking mode. He spinned into his own ball and attacked Eggman.

Each of the spider legs had four joints, equivalentto the shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger, and spaced as approximate the same distance down the leg, as a persons arm. Despite the fact that the spider was somewhat confined, it could move within the space relatively quickly. Shadow growled. Hitting the leg joints was actually quite difficult. It took him several attempts to eventually hit a leg joint. After, super-spinning at the spider, missing, ricocheted of the ceiling and then the floor before swinging around for another attempt. Sonic was having similar issues but between them after learning how this spider moved, they began hitting their targets.

Shadow was right. The leg joints were indeed a weakness, and immediately snapped on impact. Again and again, they worked together to repeatedly bombard the spider and as more and more legs joints broke, Eggman was finding his mighty robot spider begin to collapsebeneath him.

But then the entire Base began to violentlyshake.

The charges. The Base was exploding. Times up. Eggman cursed them.

Shadow aimed for the floor, perfectly landing on his feet and immediately sped for the door. Sonic landed just ahead, and stopped, looking confused.

"Time to leave!" Shadow spat as he ran past him. Without question, the Blue Blur immediately followed. Shadow could feel him behind him, as he lead them through the Base and out towards the surface. The labyrinthof corridors didn't help matters and he nearly got them lost before finally blasting through to the surface, from the underground complex. Now, it was clear. Speed through the empty Base and they were out and home free.

But then it happened.

There was an excruciating pain right between his shoulders, and at the back of his head, as something hit him from behind, and exploded. He was thrown forwards and landed flat on his face. It was very swore very loudly as he struggled to stay awake. He closed his eyes as his brain began to heavily fog and the sounds of the surrounding explosions began to disappear.

Everything then suddenly faded into blackness. He was out, cold.

Shadow was down.

Sonic had heard the speeding homing torpedoes, a farewell gift from Eggman, from behind them and had dodged. But one hit Shadow square in the shoulders, head and neck. Sonic ran up to him, fearing the worse, only to find that the mighty Black Hedgehog was still breathing.

'Thank goodness!' He thought. Sonic knew about Shadow's immortality and regeneration abilities, if he could get him to safety, he'd recover. But that was easier said then done. Shadow was about the heaviest Sapient in the world for his size and Sonic the lightest. As the Base shook even more violently was the underground sections began to collapse, there was no way that Sonic could carry Shadow out of here.

But he wasn't leaving his rival behind.

So Sonic grabbed Shadow's wrists and starts to drag him out of the Base, slowing walking backwards. Shadow was heavy, really heavy. Sonic swore.

'What did Gerald put into you to make you so dam heavy?' he thought. Sonic was referencing to the fact that Shadow had been designed and made in a laboratory by Gerald Robotnik. Sonic was built for the speed not strength, and it took every ounce of strength he had to just drag Shadow along the ground.

It was slow going. Ruthlessly, slow going.

Sonic could see the way out. The exit to the Base was just ahead of him, but the Base was collapsing all around them.

He was very tired, it had been a long day.

He'd stopped for a breather, just short of leaving the Base, but he knew he couldn't stay here for long. Eggman would almost certainly send more farewell gifts.

'Come on, Shads, wake up!' Sonic thought frustrated. He shook Shadow hard. He could really do with him awake right now. But the Black Hedgehog still unconscious.

Sonic could leave him, make things easier for himself, but that went against everything he knew.

'Like hell, I'm leaving you!' He thought, and with a rush of adrenaline, his grabbed the Black Hedgehog's wrists again and dragged out of the Base and towards the perimeter.

The surface part of the Base disappeared into a giant sink hole as the underground sections were exploding.

With the gut determination that can only came from being the hero, Sonic dragged Shadow to successfully to the Base perimeter. Not far to go before they would be safe.

Sonic was relieved.

But then he screamed.

The excruciating pain forced him to his knees and his back to arch backwards. It was so painful. Incredibly painful. The worse pain he had felt in his entire life. He panicked. What was it?

It came from nowhere. He didn't even hear it coming.

Between his shoulder blades, something had shot him.

He collapsed with his hands and head on the floor, bend over, gasping for air. He painfully looked around for the perimeter fence was lined with crossbows.

Sonic swore.

An arrow.

He was kicking himself. They were ancient technology but Eggman favoured them because of their silent delivery. Sonic knew all this, he should have been more weary.

The ground beneath them began to rumble. Now they really had to get out of here. The Base was going to blow up. Expecting one giant explosion, Sonic now somewhat panicking and panting heavily. He painfully got to his feet and pulled Shadow through the perimeter fence, dodging further arrows as he went.

His energy was draining fast, but with huge amounts of adrenalinefueling him, he dragged Shadow up a hill to under a tree, about a hundred metres from the perimeter fence.

Boom!

The Base finally exploded with a sound so loud that he caused the whole area to shake. Sonic to collapsed again to the ground, landing on his side, right next to Shadow. The pain in his back now worse then ever. As he lay there watching the spectacularlight show, as a massive yellow-orange fireball headed skyward, he looked around, he realised he'd done it. Rubble was falling all around them, but they were clear of all any debris.

They were safe.

Sonic heard faint groansfrom beside him, Shadow would be alright.

Sonic smiled, it was the best news he'd had all day, but as he lay on his side, he rested his head on the ground.

He was tired.

Sonic's eyes fell now on Shadow and was extremely glad not to be alone, taking his rival by the hand. He had huge respect for the Black Hedgehog, even if no one else did.

The arrow in his back was still extremely painful. But the pain was fading fast and it was taking his energy with it.

His life-force.

He sighed. He knew what was coming.

He didn't fight it. He was done with the fighting.

He needed to rest.

He was struggling to stay awake, slipping into darkness.

Sonic closes his eyes, and as his breathing slowed, the last of his life leaves his body, and dies.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three – Saviour**

Shadow finally came round, absolutely frozen. Extremely cold. His mind was spinning and his eyes, very blurry. He lay there completely still and for good reason. He was in a lot of pain. However, this pain didn't feel like he'd regenerated. Regeneration causes the world's worse migraines but this was different. The back of his head and neck were in agony, feeling like someone had blown a massive chuck out of them. He closed his eyes and shivered with both the pain and the cold. Then he realised something. He never shivered with the cold before. He was perfectly adapted to withstand extreme temperatures, he just didn't feel them.

He was confused and the confusion worsened when finally, his eyesight cleared, to find himself looking at white. White all around him. It was cold and wet.

Snow!

He as absolutely covered, from head to foot, in a thick layer of snow. He had to punch through to get some fresh air. He sat up and looked around. Everywhere was covered it, up to a foot thick in places and more falling fast. Shadow was absolutely stunned.

How long had he been out? Months from the look of it. He'd gone from early Summer to what looked like mid Winter. As he looked around, there was a problem, with the snow everywhere, he didn't recognise anything.

He had no idea where he was!

The pain in his head snapped him out of his bewilderment. He place a hand on the back of head and neck and found a very large hole, and dried blood. Shadow was very surprised that this injury didn't immediately trigger regeneration. From the pain, though, there was a good chance it still would. Shadow wasn't looking forward to it.

He rubbed his eyes and painfully got to his feet. He was extremely wobbly, and used the tree beside him for stability. A blanket of snow completely surrounded him, and Shadow desperately tried to remember what happened here.

Nothing.

All his recent memories were gone. He wasn't surprised at that with the head injury he'd got. A full regeneration would repair the damage and only then, would he remember. His brain was still spinning but he stood against the tree, and after some time, everything was finally beginning to settle.

But Shadow was now really beginning to shiver. The cold punched right through to his core and for the first time in his life, he actually feared he'd freeze to death if he stayed any longer.

Time, very much, to move on.

Trudging through the snow, he headed over the hill away from the tree and towards the vague direction of Tails' House. He was relieved. At least his built in compass wasn't completely broken. He couldn't run, he was too weak from the cold and the pain. After what felt like several hours, he walked by a small wooded area, where he heard his name being called.

"Shadow!" The voice hollowed.

He looked around, he was struggling to see with the pain. Someone came running up to him.

"Oh, thank goodness. I've been looking for you everywhere." The voice said, sounding relived.

It was Rouge. Shadow recognised her voice, more then her. The Bat was heavily wrapped in Winter clothing. Hat, scarf, gloves, and coat. He barely recognised her. She grabbed him. She swore.

"Shadow, your as cold as ice!" She stammered. "What happened? You've been missing for a week!"

Shadow stared at her.

"A week?" He growled in pain. "Don't you mean months? This is Winter." He added, pointing at the snow all around them.

Rouge went white.

"You don't know, do you?" She stammered again. Shadow was loosing his patience.

"Know what?" He almost shouted. Rouge gulped.

"This is still Summer. Something happened just under a week ago. The thing is nobody knows what. Practically overnight, we went beautiful warm days to the temperatureplummeting and snow starting to fall, and its been falling ever since." She explained.

Shadow stared. This was impossible. It shouldn't snow in Summer. Something was seriously wrong. Rouge looked grabbed Shadow by the arm. He was only just about able to stand. Then she finally noticed the injury on the back of his head.

"Shadow?" She pleaded. "Your head? What happened?" She asks.

He hissed at her. He really didn't feel like telling her. The truth was, he had no idea. He couldn't remember. Then Rouge suddenly realisedsomething.

"Hey, where Sonic?" She cries.

Sonic?

What had that Blue idiot got to do it and why should he care?

"I don't know!" He spat, he was angry. He just wanted to get warm. But Rouge didn't believe him.

"He didn't show up for his birthday party!" She squeals. "Everyone's worried sick. It is unheard of for Sonic not to show up. After the Meeting, we began watching you. We saw you go into that Base after him and when you didn't return..." She said, tailing off at Shadow's look, a look she had seen before on his face. But it had been many years. A look of no memory.

Now Shadow was now really angry. What was she talking about? He got absolutely nothing.

"What Meeting? What Base?" He spat harshly. The last thing he remembered was working on the Ark.

Rouge's eyes widened. How could he not remember? But then she realised that Shadow's head injury must have damaged his memories, and that she wasn't going to get any answers here.

Shadow was really struggling with the cold and the pain wasn't easing. Rouge grabbed him and steered him towards the shelter of the nearby woodland. It was better. Slightly warmer and out of the cold wind, Shadow rested again the tree. He looked at Rouge and thanked her. But she was still extremely worried and him, more confused then ever. Why the snow in Summer? What was going on?

He couldn't go any further.

He was just too tired. But how? He never got tired.

Rouge stayed with him, began talking about how the others had been out in the snow searching for him, when Shadow attention was diverted away from Rouge so completely, that her voice faded away to nothing.

He was looking into the darkness of the woods. Surrounded by trees, but Shadow's perfect eyesight could see, and it was a strange light that caught his attention. He looked back at the Bat. She was still talking but he wasn't listening. It seemed that she couldn't the light. It was showing to him and him, alone.

The light was close to a tree and had an air of familiarity about it. The light got brighter and brighter, until it suddenly expanded into a...person. Surrounded in white hue and mist. A Sapient. A male. He had spines, or quills running down the back of his head and back. A Hedgehog. Shadow stared, absolutely transfixed and somewhat scared. He never seen anything like this before. The Hedgehog was completely pearly-white and see-through and becoming clearer by the second. He was incredibly well-kept, fairly slender, with long arms and legs. He wore gloves, socks and shoes. Shadow stared at the shoes. They had a stripe along them. Despite them being completely white, they were incredibly familiar to him. In fact, the entire Hedgehog looked familiar. He looked back at Rouge again, she was still talking, still without a care in the world. She couldn't see him.

The white Hedgehog seemed to be as stunned to be stood there as Shadow was to see him. He was looking down at his hands and feet, with a look of horror and terror. Then down at his body, not quite believing what had happened for him. He was shining, an Aura around him very bright. It seemed to be made of pure Chaos. As Shadow stared at him, he was slowing realising at what he was looking at. But that was impossible. He'd heard stories but that was all they were, stories. He was a professional assassin, an expert killing, with a licence to kill. He was paid ridiculously large quantities of money, mainly by the Authorities, to delete many selected targets. But none of them had ever come back to haunt him. But this Hedgehog wasn't just anyone.

Suddenly, he looked up, and their eyes met. Despite being completely white, Shadow instantly knew those eyes. They were the eyes of someone he knew extremely well. Someone he'd bullied regularly. Someone he had respect for.

Someone who shouldn't be...

Shadow gasped, extremely shocked. As was the Hedgehog when he realised that Shadow could see him.

Sonic?!

A Ghost?!

That meant he was...dead!

Shadow was confused. Sonic couldn't die. He considered him almost an equal to himself, the highest honour he could give to a mortal. But he was still only mortal.

'How? When?' He thought. He couldn't remember anything.

He absolutely panicked and then very suddenly, and very swiftly, he disappeared, into the trees.

His white light silently vanished and the darkness returned to the trees.

"Shadow." Someone was calling him. Shadow ignored them.

He himself now panicked, wondering where the ghost went.

"Shadow!" His name again. He paid no attention.

He franticly looked around. Where did Sonic go?

"SHADOW!" Rouge was shouting at him. She finally got his attention. She was very annoyed.

"Finally!" She spat, rolling her eyes. "You haven't been listening, have you? Seemed you zoned out just there. Look, we have to go. The guys are meeting up back at Tails' House." She shrugged.

Shadow didn't answer.

Tails! Sonic!

His mind was spinning, and right at that very moment, Tails' House was the last place he wanted to go. He was just in too pain to deal with them, right now.

"No!" He spat. But Rouge argued.

"But you can't stay here. You have to come with us!" She pleaded.

Oh, yes he could, if he chose. If Shadow was just a normal Sapient, a mortal, maybe not. He would die from the cold, but he was different. He was staying.

"NO!" He growled, very loudly. His fierce temper flaring. Rouge backed off, she had seen Shadow's temper first-hand and knew better then to argue. She sighed.

"OK, fine." She spat. "But don't go anywhere, I'll send someone to come and get you later." And with that she vanished in the now heavy blizzard that had blown up when they were in among the trees.

Finally, he was alone.

But he didn't want to be alone. He just didn't want the Bat about. He wanted to find him.

He looked through the trees where he fled too. Shadow, personally, didn't know these woods. So he painfully and slowly made his way through them, looking for his quarry as he went.

But through the darkness, he saw nothing. No white mist, no light, nothing. He was completely confused, and now, extremely worried. He was finding the woods unusually dark.

Where was Sonic? Shadow was very eager to talk him. He wasn't even sure that he was real or just an hallucination. After his injury, anything was possible. But his pain was getting worse and worse, and he was running out of energy.

But that wasn't possible. In theory, he should never run out of energy. He ran on Chaos, an Energy that was everywhere.

But then Shadow looked around, and noticed that the plants and trees around him here dying. No longer producing Chaos. Everything was dark.

Chaos!

It was gone.

Upon this realisation, he looked around, panicking. The vast colours that Shadow saw in relation to Chaos, absolutely everywhere, were gone. It all looked black. Shadow was heaving. Thats why he was struggling? Why he wasn't recovering? There was no Chaos. He looked up and heard the almighty blizzard again in the distance.

The snow!

The lack of Chaos explained it all.

Chaos, when generated by all living things, also generates in its own light and warmth, and therefore has an major influence on the weather. Usually the higher the concentration of Chaos, the higher the outside temperature tended to be. So deserts where nearly always Chaos hotspots. Good for Shadow, if he could stand the heat.

Now, with Chaos gone, and its associated warmth, the worldwide temperature had plummeted, plunging the planet into a potential ice age.

But where was the Source? Should they have stopped this.

Shadow stopped by a tree, the pain was now officially too much. He placed his back again the tree, and heaved. He was out of breath, his head throbbing. Nearly out of energy, be could barely move. He was needed to rest. He closed his eyes and slide down the tree, to sit of the ground at the base of it.

But he didn't hit dirt, but metal. Cold, hard metal which immediately triggered Shadow to be suddenly surrounded by white light and the feeling of his body being moved. Shadow knew this feeling extremely well.

Teleporter.

But to where?

He immediately perked up, ready to defend himself. He didn't have many reserves left, but he could still fight.

He landed on the floor of the small cylindrical room with a small console to one side. Shadow recognised it but frowned. It was filthy. He looked though the door into the rest of the room. It was dimly lit, completely disused and abandoned. A Base. One of Eggman's Base. He was definitely sure, he recognised the technology. But abandoned? As far as Shadow knew, all the locations of Eggman's Bases were accounted for, and none were abandoned. He must have stumbled across the teleporter pad on the surface to gain access. All underground Bases have them. But where was he? He painfully got to his feet, and began exploring.

Parts of the Base had collapsed. Bare electrical wires were hanging everywhere, sparking occasionally, and the ceiling was bowing in places. It wasn't exactly safe. But Shadow didn't care, he was looking for something very specific.

The main Console station of the Base. As he looked around, he got the impression that the Base was rather small in size and soon found what he was looking for. He found the Console but the ceiling had collapsed in on it. By using what little strength he had, he cleared the debris and tried starting up the Console. To his surprise, it still had power and booted the operating system. Leaning against the Console to keep himself standing, he scanned the local area to find out where he was. The scanner was working to a point and they were able to tell that he hadn't actually moved location.

What?

He investigated further and found that the Base was directly underneath the small wooded area that he'd been exploding, barely minutes ago. He was stunned. He had no idea it was here. The wooded area was barely a stone's throw from Tails' House. How did Eggman build it so close, without being noticed?

Shadow didn't know and there was no time for that as he used the scanner to scan for Chaos outside.

Nothing.

No new Chaos was being made and what Chaos was there was being used up. Fast. It was dying. It was too much of a coincidence. Sonic's death and the death of Chaos. Then it hit him hard, and he wondered why he was such an idiot to never have even consider it before.

Sonic was the Source.

He had to have been. It was the only thing that made sense.

Sonic was the Source that Shadow had been looking for and with his death, all Chaos dies with him. The Source, had been right under his nose, often quite literally, and he never found him. It seemed that his Chaos generation and him being the Source were very much separate and the reason why Shadow never even considered him. He thought that having both could potentially be too much Chaos for one body to handle, but apparently not. Sonic was indeed special in that regard. In fact, Sonic was special in so many different ways, almost to the point where it left you wondering where it all came from. What was his history? If Shadow had found Sonic as the Source, however, what could he have done for him? Shadow had no idea.

But now, he was done for. His legs were shaking.

He collapsed.

Time's up.

He hit the floor hard and the Chaos Emerald that he stored in his quills in his back, fell out and rolled in front of him. He stared at it. The Emerald was almost clear expect for a speck of light, right in the centre of the stone. He felt little Chaos from it. The Chaos Emerald was fading away to nothing and Shadow himself was now beginning to die, using up the last of his own Chaos reserves.

Normally, regeneration would kick in at this point, but there was not enough Chaos around him to fuel it.

He lay on the floor, on his side, feeling very strange, the pain horrendous. He was starving. He craved Chaos but Mobius had none to give. He desperately needed to regenerate. For the first time in his life, he was pleading for it. Normally, it was so incredibly painful that he hated it with a passion. But it was better then this, plus he did always recover.

Now he was dying. Properly dying. To die without regenerating was to fall and never wake. He was incredibly frightened. He'd never even considered that this would ever happen to him.

He tried to move and failed.

He was struggling to breath.

He closed his eyes. He sighed.

Darkness.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt it.

Warmth, mainly around his chest, but it then spread to the rest of his body.

The beautiful warmth that immediately began to put him into a very deep sleep.

Not death.

He immediately recognised it. He was regenerating.

Yes, finally.

But how? What was fuelling it?

Shadow didn't get a chance to find out as the regeneration proceeded to knock him out.

The process took some time to complete, usually several days, and Shadow is normally out cold for the entire time.

But this time it was different.

He may have been unconscious, but he kept getting the feeling he wasn't alone. Made for a rather pleasant change. He normally did everything alone, including this.

Several days past, and the regeneration process was coming to its completion. He was fully healed of all injuries and slowly coming too. Now, this was the part he really hated.

The pain!

The regeneration migraines!

No injury he had ever received from anyone had ever given him worser pain then these. They were caused by the fact that the regeneration process completely renews every cell in his body, a process that should be extremely painful. But because he's unconscious and needs to be, for it to work, the combination of which results in regeneration migraines at the end. He normally had the world strongest pain-killers (not legal) on hand, on the Ark for this, but he wasn't on the Space Station.

He was here, in the abandoned Base, alone.

But he wasn't alone.

He woke with a start and sat up. The pain was horrendous, he screamed, holding his head. His brain, instantly fogged.

"Easy, big guy!" Said a voice, trying to calm him. Shadow recognised the voice but it didn't register through the pain. He rolled onto his hands and knees. The pain was unbearable, excruciating. He screamed again, screwing his eyes up, curling into a ball, violently shaking.

The voice swears.

"I can't believe you go through this, Shads, every time you regenerate." It said, sounding very worried.

Shadow opened his eyes, that voice, that word, it temporarily broke through the pain. Shads! Only one person on the whole planet ever called him that.

"Sonic!?" Shadow somehow managed to gasp. He'd found him but he couldn't see him. Just hear him.

He seemed to feel a cloud of Chaos move all around him. Definitely Sonic. His body was desperately craving the Chaos the Blue Blur was generating.

"I'm here, Shads. Where the pain?" He asked.

Shadow slapped his head as he couldn't answer because the pain had worsen. He was now really struggling to keep control of his temper. He rolled onto his back, his eyes closed.

He couldn't take it much longer. He was going to blast.

Chaos Blast.

Destroy wherever he was as an attempt the rid himself of the pain.

But then, he realised, he didn't need to. He could feel Chaos, large quantities of it, being focus in on his forehead. The pain was easing. His brain was clearing. His mind could think straight again. He felt better.

But how? He had never recovered from a regeneration so quickly.

He opened his eyes and saw immediately something very white, hovering just over his head. He jumped a mile.

"Whoa!" Shadow stammered, immediately getting up and moving incredibly quickly, backing off towards the Console, panting heavily.

"Shadow!" Sonic said as calmly as he could. "Easy, I'm not going to hurt you." He whispered. He had his hands up, showing the whites of his gloved palms. That, in Sapient culture, is a sign of surrender or non violence. Shadow stops and stares at him.

Sonic was pearly white, completely see-through and hovering about two feet off the ground. His legs and feet were gone, but where they should have been, his body tapered off into a point which seemed to leave trails of ectoplasm behind him as he moved. He sighed, nervously.

"I'm glad your alright. It was touch and go there. I wasn't sure if I had enough Chaos in me to trigger and fuel your regeneration." He paused, grinning. "I've never seen you regenerate before. It was fascinating to watch, especially when the back of your head got healed." He smiled.

Shadow stunned, immediately felt his head, it was completely normal, and realised that now, finally, his memories were beginning to come back. The meeting, the rescue, the robot spider, the torpedo, Sonic.

Sonic!

He looked the ghost incredibly guilty. He rubbed his face with his hands.

"What?" Sonic asked. Shadow was very angry at himself.

"I was supposed to rescue you from that Base, not get you killed!" He stammered, his mind was racing, the memories were coming back thick and fast.

"You didn't!" Sonic spat, folding his arms. Shadow stared, this snapped him out of the overactive mind.

"What?" He questioned, he could have swore he was responsible.

"You didn't!" Sonic said again, silently moving right up to the mighty Black Hedgehog. "I died because of my decisions, not yours. Your not the one at fault here." He smiled.

Shadow stared, he just didn't believe him, but then he frowned.

"How did you..." He asked, but Sonic cut across him.

"Come back?" He finished. "I dunno, but this is all you, Shads, considering I died right next to you. Some of your abilities must have transferred to me or something." He shrugs.

What? Died? Next to him? When? Even with all of his memories returned, he had no knowledge of this. He frowned.

"What?" He gasped. But Sonic blew this off, seeing Shadow in such utter confusion, he figured had enough on his plate.

"Another time, I think." He grinned.

Shadow was about to argue, when pain returned. The regeneration migraines were not done with him yet. He grabbed his head, eyes screwed up, gritting his teeth, heaving with pain. Sonic took charge.

"Shadow, hold still, I can help!" He said sternly. It was like someone had flipped a switch, he went from stupid idiot to serious hero in an instant.

Shadow did as he was asked. Right now, he needed him, dead or otherwise. Sonic was his only source of Chaos.

He managed to open his eyes through the pain and saw Sonic place his hands on his forehead and closed his eyes. The ghost was giving him his Chaos. He felt it flow into his head and calm his pain. He was feeling so much better. His opened his red eyes, they were glowing with the Chaos. Soon his body was no longer craving it, he was fully healed, the pain finally gone.

Then, all of a sudden, an extremely bright white light exploded out of Sonic and temporarily lit up the entire Base. It blinded Shadow but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Shadow panicked.

"Sonic?" He calls.

"Yes, Shads. I'm still here." He answers.

As Shadow eyes, adjusted back to normal, he saw Sonic hovering ahead of him, looking as though nothing had happened. But it did. He looked as scared as he did.

"What was that?" Shadow gasps.

"I have no idea!" Sonic replies honestly.

They looked at each other. Shadow no longer needed Sonic's touch to feed on his Chaos, just being next to him, was enough, just like it was when he was alive. Sonic was a stunned as he was. Frightened, Sonic moves towards Shadow, and gave him the closest thing to a hug, a ghost could give. He felt very cold. Shadow was incredibly taken aback, he didn't think he meant that much to the Blue Blur. But it did explain everything, why he'd saved his life, using his Chaos for his regeneration. This was Sonic. The hero. He does stuff like this. What reason did he need.

Shadow looked down at the ghost as Sonic looks up and saw tears. The first tears Shadow had ever seen on Sonic, and no, now was not the time.

"Hey!" Shadow spits. "None of that." He demands. Sonic nods, wiping his eyes. Shadow sighed.

"Look, we'll work this out, together." He smirks.

"You promise?" Sonic squeaks enthusiasticly. Shadows rolls his eyes.

"What choice do I have! I now can't survive without you!" He hissed.

Sonic moved away from Shadow and begins flying all around him.

"Yeah!" He squeals delightedly. "And it means I sticking with you and vice verser." He giggles.

Sonic began doing a stupid victory dance. Shadow face-palms, running his fingers throughs the quills on his head.

Bloody wonderful!

He was now stuck with this idiot. Shadow was not happy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four – Artificial**

That wasn't entirely true. Yes, Shadow found Sonic incredibly annoying, irritating as hell, and used to regularly pulled a gun on him. But their relationship was much more then that.

Shadow spat. Relationship was wrong. They were definitely not in one. Acquaintance maybe. Even boarder line, friend. He never ever considered Sonic as a friend before, but now, thinking about it. He finally admitted, he was. Different to everyone else. He was the only person, he ever met, who truly understood him. They had a lot in common. The super-speed, for example, but they were also very different as well. Rouge and Omega were more work colleagues then real friends. He sighed.

Thinking about it, before Sonic died, he hadgrown somewhat fond of the hedgehog. Yes, he was admitting that, as well. When they were together, it was usually working in a mission. They bickered, they argued, they'd brought the best and worst out of each other. Shadow would bully Sonic horrendously, but in the end, Shadow would miss him when he was gone. They could work together so efficiently, that they made for one deadly battle team. When the two hedgehogs were really on the ball, their teamwork was deadly. Not even Eggman would cross them, if they were together. He knew Sonic that well, and when it ultimately came down to it, was glad of his company.

But now things were different. He smirked as he watched the ghost fly all around him. Exploring, moving in, around and through the Base, including walls. He was having so much fun with it.

He mourned his passing. He was very sad that Sonic had died. Though he found truly mourning him difficult when he was flying around his head. Shadow's smirk broadened, that just summed up the situation perfectly. He still had questions about his death, but Sonic was keeping the details close to his chest. Shadow didn't blame him. Revealing details of something so intimate, can't be easy, but it seemed that Sonic died how he lived. By his way. Shadow was glad but was somewhat worried.

Shadow was a avid reader, and until now, didn't believe in ghosts. But had read all the stories. The myths. He frowned as they all had one thing in common. A ghost only remains on the planet and doesn't cross-over, because they have unfinished business and therefore, their time here is limited. Once their business is done, they leave. Right at that very moment, Shadow didn't want Sonic to leave. He didn't want to alone. But as he felt the Chaos generating from Sonic, he realised that it wasn't infinite. It would run out, eventually, presumably taking Sonic with it, out of existence. He didn't like that idea but then, what for him? With his only source of Chaos on the planet gone, he'd be forced to the Ark, with its artificial Chaos for all eternity, alone.

Shadow growled. He didn't want that. To be trapped like that again. It was his worst hatred. He enjoyed his freedoms too much. It would be almost like going back they when he was just created, being held prisoner all the time. He hated it back then too.

He was sat at the main Console station of the abandoned Base, he found a chair from somewhere, trying to dig through the operation system, looking for any information about its history.

"Hi. What you doing?" Sonic asked, out of nowhere.

He'd popped up beside him, or more accurately, right in front of him, in the middle of the Console. He'd was passing straight throw it. He made Shadow jump. He growled.

"Don't do that!" He spat, angrily and Sonic hung his head.

"Sorry." He said shyly, moving out of the way, and then added. "Well, what you doing?" He said hopefully. Shadow gave him a sideways look, why should he tell him after that stupid trick? But still, he was here now, so he may as well.

"I'm looking for infomation about this Base. When was it built and why?" Shadow sighed. Sonic was panting, jumping up and down.

"I can tell you that!" He said gleefully. Shadow stared at him. Sonic continued.

"Yep, I stumbled across this place, when I was a kid, not long after I moved in with Tails. I got in the same way you did. I think it was built long before Tails' House and was abandoned because of it size. It wasn't big enough for what Eggman wanted. Think of it more as an underground house rather then an actual Base." He sighed, grinning.

Shadow was stunned.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" He asked curiously. Sonic huffed.

"Because there was no point. Eggman wasn't interested in it, so why should I have been." He paused. "Plus, we couldn't have used it for anything anyway. It wasn't any danger to us, so why draw attention to it." Sonic added. He did had a point. Shadow looked around the place. He liked it but then he suddenly noticed that Sonic was very upset. Shadow frowned.

"What's up?" He asked. The ghost looked up.

"Just mentioning Tails' House. I wonder how he's coping." He squeaked. He looked down at his hands. "How am I going to tell him?" He cried. Shadow had no idea. But he wasn't going to let the ghost cry over it.

"We'll work something out." He shrugs. But then Sonic perks up a little.

"Can we go?" He asked.

"Where?" Shadow enquires, automatically.

"Tails' House?" Sonic pleaded. Shadow stared at him. It was a bold move. He understood why Sonic wanted to go. But, thinking about it, Shadow was fully regenerated, pain free, and back to full strength. There was nothing in the abandoned Base to keep him here. He had no reason to say 'no'. He sighed.

"Are you sure?" He asked. He want to make sure the ghost knew what he was doing. Sonic nodded. He nodded in return. Shadow left the console and grabbed his things, including the Chaos Emerald he had. It was all but clear. He sighed, worried. With no new Chaos being generated, the natural Chaos that remained was not going to last much longer, maybe a few more days, at most, before it was gone for good. Used up.

Then the dying would happen. Those most dependant of Chaos would perish first, followed closely by everyone else. He had absolutely no idea how to fix this and maybe going to Tails' House wasn't such a bad idea. Surely the Fox could help.

He shoved the Chaos Emerald into his quills and made his way out of the Base. Teleporting to wooded area above. It was very cold, but Shadow, now back to normal, could barely feel it, at first. Sonic, way ahead of him, was eager to get there, and Shadow had some trouble keeping up. He smirked. That was the story of his life against the Blue Blur and even after death, he was still faster then him. Within seconds, they were at the edge of the woods. A blizzard and thick snow lay between them and Tails' House, which was just on the horizon.

They both stopped and stared. Sonic gulped.

"Hey. Where did all the snow come from? It's not Winter yet, is it?" He asked.

Shadow stared at the pearly white ghost. Time to tell him the truth. He shook his head.

"The snow has happened because Chaos is dying!" He said.

"What!" Sonic spat. "How?" He asked. Shadow sighed. He decided to outright tell him. He obviously didn't know.

"Chaos is dying because you died. Your the Source." He said bluntly.

"I'm the what!" Sonic spat.

"The Source." Shadow sighed. Looks like he'd have to spell it out for him. "All life creates Chaos..." Sonic cut across him.

"Yeah, I know that." He spat. Shadow folded his arms.

"Yes. But did you know that the amount of Chaos that was available on Mobius far exceeded the amount that the life upon it was generating." He smirked.

Sonic stared in silence. That would be a 'no'. Shadow continued.

"Someone was generating the excess, and that someone was you." He said bluntly, pointing at the ghost. "Without you, Chaos can't maintain itself and survive." He said. Sonic bit his lip, feeling incredibly guilty. He began to cry.

"Hey!" Shadow spat. "This isn't your fault. You didn't know and I only realised the truth myself, after your death." Shadow growled. Sonic looked up.

"Can we fix it?" He asked. The Black Hedgehog sighed.

"I don't know." Shadow answered truthfully. Sonic looked through the snow towards the Tails' House in the distance.

"Hey. Come on. Maybe Tails can help!" He said rushing out into the snow. Shadow growled, he'd already thought of that. He watched Sonic disappear into the blizzard. What he wouldn't give for Chaos Control right now. But with the Chaos Emeralds dying, it wasn't possible. Why did he agree to this? He hated snow. It was very cold and very wet. But Shadow had given his word, and now began slowly making his way though the snow, swearing the whole time.

It was hard going, and wasn't helped by the fact that had Sonic flying around his head, egging him on.

'Oh, its easy for you!' He spat in his thoughts. 'You can't feel the dam cold.' He hissed. He could really feel the it now. Even through his defences. This snowstorm was driven by Chaos, or more accurately the lack of it. So it was unusual to begin with. As he moved towards the house, he felt an unusual warmth coming from it. As he approached, the door flew open and someone just ahead of him, ran across and into the house. The door was about be closed against the snow, but not before he sped forwards and barred it with the hand and arm.

"Hey, what the?" A voice squealed from inside. The door opened.

"Shadow!" The voice was completely stunned, looking at the Black Hedgehog. It was Rouge. Shadow, now really cold and swearing with it, pushed past her and into the house, shutting the door behind him. The cold had left him in an absolutely fowl mood.

"Shadow?" Rouge said again. "I thought you were dead. We went back to look for you but you'd gone." She stated but Shadow wasn't listening. His attention was elsewhere. He was looking around the room. Tails' lounge and it was in a sorry state. Nearly every sofa had someone lying on it. Unconscious, barely breathing. Anyone who had any dependency on Chaos was there. Knuckles, Vector, Big the Cat, Amy, Cheese, Espio, Silver and Blaze. The situation was absolutely dire. It seemed that Tails, Rouge, Cream and Charmy were the only ones unaffected for now. Cream and Charmy were caring for the fallen, Rouge behind him, Tails was ahead of him, in the kitchen.

Shadow noticed something behind the Fox. The source of the house's warmth and light. A very large electronic, cylindrical device that he instantly recognised. It was an Artificial Chaos Generator and they were only ever found on the Ark. It had obviously been stolen from him. He growled. He walked towards Tails. He spotted him and panicked. Rouge ran between them.

"Move!" Shadow said extremely coldly. She pleaded with him.

"Shadow, please. I didn't mean to steel from you. But we need it." She cried. Shadow smirked. The warmth from the generator was rapidly softening his mood. He was not an evil, greedy, selfish git, all of the time. He could be humble, at exactly the right time. Like now. As it happened, he agreed with her. They did need it, more than him, at that very moment. Now was not the time to take vengeance against being robbed, there were more important things.

"Move!" He said again, sighing. "Its not calibrated properly." They all knew what Shadow was talking about. The Artificial Chaos Generator. Rouge and Tails looked at each other and as Tails nodded, Rouge stood aside.

Shadow walked up to the Generator, and immediately began tweaking with it. Tails sighed.

"I thought I'd got that thing working." He stated. Shadow smirked.

"Not even close!" He hissed. "These were designed and build by Gerald Robotnik. Their old technology. I constantly have to fiddle with them, to get the dam things to work at..." He paused, concentrating. Shadow had his hand inside the cylinder of the device. When all of a sudden, it whirred into life, creating large quantities of both light and warmth throughout the whole house. "Full capacity!" Shadow sighed, finishing.

Immediately, all of the people lying on sofas began regaining consciousness. Rouge and Tails went straight to their aid, leaving Shadow behind.

"Hey, Shads! You did it!" Said a voice beside him, sounding extremely impressed. It was Sonic. Shadow had temporarily forgotten the ghost was with him. He wasn't worried, only he could see or hear him. There was a lot of confusion as all of the unconscious Sapients came too, mainly as to what happened. But one of them knew. He knew exactly what was going on. Knuckles!

As soon as he woke, he saw Shadow and rounded on him.

"You!" He shouted. "What did you do? Chaos everywhere is dying. Even the Master Emerald." The he paused, staring at the Black Hedgehog. He knew of Shadow's background. "How are you still alive?" He spat. "Your more dependant on Chaos then anyone!" He yelled.

Shadow was about to defend himself, when someone else got there first. Someone who had completely forgotten that he was a ghost.

"Hey! Back off, Knucklehead! Shadow didn't do anything!" He spat, very loudly.

The room instantly silenced and all eyes seemed to look in Sonic's general direction, but then wildly all around. Sonic whirled rounded at Shadow, his hand over his mouth. It seemed they both figured it out together.

"Shadow, they can hear me! What do I do?" He asked, sheepishly. Shadow looked behind him at the Generator. It must be the Artificial Chaos doing this. It was very different to natural Chaos, but it achieved the same results. Shadow thought about Sonic's question. The Artificial Chaos had really warmed him up including his mood, almost to the point where he could start mocking his rival. His lip curled. This was just too good.

"Put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye." He smirked. "Ah, yes!" He hissed. "You've already done that!" He leered.

Sonic stared at him, they all did, but Shadow didn't care. He was in his element. Sonic was his target.

"Wait! Whoa, whoa!" Said Sonic, rather loudly, completely forgetting the previous situation. He moved back in front of Shadow. "Did the the great and powerful Shadow The Hedgehog just crack a joke?" He said, stunned. Shadow raised an eyebrow. Hell, yes. He did have a sense of humour underneath his cold exterior. It was, of course, as dark as he was, just like his heart. At least he had one, unlike Eggman. He watched Sonic whirl all around him, wondering what he would do next. He finally stopped.

"Well, that's a first!" He said, bewildered. Shadow sighed and folded his arms.

"This week has been a one for firsts." He shrugged. Sonic stopped and looked at him.

"Oh, your not kidding." He agreed, running his fingers through his ghostly quills.

"First, we both get shot in the back!" Sonic sighed. Shadow stared.

"What?" He spat. "You did?" He asked. Sonic giggled.

"Oh yeah." He grinned, moving back around to beside Shadow again. The Black Hedgehog watched him extremely curiously. He continued. "Then we both die." He grinned. Shadow frowned.

"Yeah." He agreed, he did sort of die. Sonic was getting very bouncy.

"Then we both rose from the dead." He grinned. Shadow frown deepened.

"Yes?" He spat. He did regenerate. He was confused. Where was going? He looked at Sonic. The ghost was giggling.

"And now were both back to kick butt." Sonic said, pretending to punch the air. "Yeah, its been one hell of a week." He sighed.

Shadow smirked. He completely agreed, but there was something Sonic was forgetting.

"In order the kick butt, don't you need..." He paused. "More substance!" He leered. Sonic whirled round.

"Hey!" He said, automatically defending himself Shadow's mockery. Then he realised something. Shadow was bullying him. His old friend was back and as bad as ever. Sonic was delighted. Shadow's smirk broadened. He could read Sonic perfectly. Even as a ghost. He was beginning to feel like his old self again, for the first time in a long time. The ghost was flying around his head.

"Oh yeah." He squealed. "Shadow the Avenger is back." He cheered. Everyone was watching them.

"Guys?" Someone said from within the room, but both Hedgehogs ignored them. Both Shadow and Sonic were at each others throats and neither of them were backing down. They had both completely forgotten that they were not alone.

Shadow face-palmed. He growled.

"Don't call me that!" He spat. But Sonic was extremely giggly.

"Oh, what you gonna do? Kick my butt into the next dimension. Well too bad, i'm already there!" He grinned. Shadow looks up from his hand.

"What!" He spits. "No!" He leers. But then he smirked, moving right up to Sonic. "But I'll think of something. I always do." He leers. Sonic grinned in returned and just about to retort, when they were cut across.

"GUYS!" Someone shouted and finally got the Hedgehogs attention. It was Tails. He was in tears. He'd watching them argue and had realised what had happened. He couldn't see Sonic, only Shadow could, but he could definitely hear him.

"Well, that was subtle!" Shadow hissed, smirking at Sonic, when he realised what happened. The Blue Blur rounded on him.

"Oh, Bog Off!" He spat and moved over towards Tails, smoothly and silently, leaving a trail of ectoplasm behind him. The Fox was wildly looking around for him. He definitely couldn't see him.

"Over hear. Tails!" Sonic calls. "Sorry about that. Not the way I wanted you to find out." He paused. "But someone around here was driving me bonkers!" Sonic turns and leers at Shadow. He smirked in return. Nothing new then. They were like that when Sonic was alive, so why change after his death. Tails was still crying.

"What happened?" He gasped though the tears. Sonic was about to answer when he got cut across. It was Knuckles.

"You went and got yourself killed, didn't you!" He spat in Sonic's general direction. Sonic automatically retorted.

"Hardly!" He spat back. "I was a dead Hedgehog anyway." He growled.

Wait. What?

Shadow looked up. What did Sonic mean? He was eager to find out more. Knuckles stared.

"What do you mean?" He asked, now he too was upset. Shadow could see Sonic impatiently moving up and down the room. He finally stopped.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I didn't have heart to tell you. While you guys were preparing a party for me..." He paused. But Shadow smirked. You can't hide anything from Sonic. The Blue Blur continued. "I was preparing for something else." He sighed and looked at the ground. "You live fast, you die young. It's the price you pay. Seventeen years. That was all I had." He heaved. "At midnight, on my birthday, I would drop dead, wherever I was. I just couldn't do that to you, Tails." He said, turning around to face the Fox. "To find me in my bedroom, the following morning, like that. I just couldn't do it. Not to any of you. If I was going to die, I wanted to do it around someone who I knew could deal with. Someone who dealt with it on a daily basis." He cried.

They all looked at Shadow. Sonic was talking about him. He was very taken aback, and walked forwards to join in the conversation. He sighed.

"You had no intention of getting out of that Base alive, did you?" He spat. Sonic shook his head.

"No." He said. "At least, that was the plan when I went in. I let Eggman capture me."

Shadow smirked.

"But things change!" He said. Sonic grinned.

"I knew you would come for me. I knew you wouldn't resist it, and also knew you wouldn't tell these guys either." He smiled. "Also, it was the reason what you were so confused when you saw me. Why I looked so bad? I was dying!" He added.

Silence reigned but Shadow growled. The ghost was spot on. But how did he know? Sonic did indeed know him extremely well. Maybe too well. Knuckles stared, eager for the truth.

"So, what happened?" He asked. Sonic sighed.

"I was shot in the back with an arrow, saving his behind." He grinned, pointing at Shadow. Everyone stared including Shadow. "Yeah." He said. "I probably could have left you. You probably could have survived the explosion, with your immortality. I did think about it, but no, that's not my way!" He grinned. Shadow gulped.

"I don't remember this!" He thought aloud. Sonic giggled.

"Well you won't, you idiot." He spat. Shadow growled. He didn't like being called 'idiot'. But Sonic grinned. "You were out cold from the torpedo to the back of the head." He smiled. "Please tell me what Gerald put in you to make you so heavy? I couldn't even lift you, so I dragged your behind out of the Base, towards the perimeter, which was where I got shot, to a small tree, near the Base. Where I died." He paused, sighing. "And where you left me." He added. "Chances is, I'm properly still there." He said, looking at Shadow.

Everyone rounded on him, blaming him for leaving Sonic. But this angered the Blue Blur.

"Hey, back off!" He spat. "With the blanket of snow and the torpedo to the back of the head, he properly had no idea I was even there." He yelled.

Shadow sighed. Sonic was absolutely right. He did have no idea. It was very much, his death, his way. Better to die a hero, rather in your bedroom alone, a nobody. Shadow understood that and even though the whole incident wasn't his fault, but he still felt guilty for it. But Knuckles perked up.

"Shouldn't someone go and get you?" he asked. But Sonic cringed.

"Oh, please don't!" He said. "I've been around enough dead bodies with Shadow to know how badly they can stink. Trust me, leave it where it is, for now. Frozen solid under the snow. It's better this way." He grinned. Everyone looked at Shadow.

"Look." He spat. "I didn't invite him on my jobs, he just followed me!" He defended. Sonic was grinning inanely.

"Oh, yeah." He jibbed and did, yet another, victory dance. Shadow hissed. He'd had enough, and he wasn't the only one. Knuckles had as well. He sighed.

"This would be so much easier if we could see you." He spat. Someone immediately answered him.

"I think I may have worked that out!" It was Tails. No longer in tears. Nobody had noticed he had vanished into his Workshop. He was holding a ornate gold bracelet with a large circular deep blue gem in it. He was smiling.

"Yes." He squealed. "I think I have worked it out, Sonic. Shadow can see and hear you because of the Chaos, he can see more of it then anyone. We can hear you because of the Artificial Chaos Generator, we nabbed from the Ark." He paused, jumping up and down with excitement. "I've been studying the technology and have managed to shrink it down into this." He said, showing the bracelet. "If you wear this, the concentrated Artificial Chaos it generates should be enough to allow us to see you." He grinned.

It was seriously impressive. Sonic's jaw dropped. It wasn't expecting this from Tails. He had seriously underestimated him. But there was one major flaw. Knuckles looked at the bracelet.

"Sonic can't wear anything, Tails, he's a ghost." He said. Tails looked upset. All that work for nothing. But Sonic was looking at Shadow. Their eyes met. It just might work.

"Give it, Shadow!" Sonic grinned. Shadow wasn't too sure. He didn't like the look of it, at all. Tails frowned.

"What!" He asks, confused. Sonic tried to explain.

"Please, Tails, trust me with this one. I think the reason why I have come back as a ghost, when many others don't is because of Shadow. Please, give the bracelet to him." He asked.

They all looked Shadow. He hissed. He didn't want it. Sonic moved right up to him.

"Shads. Please!" He pleaded. "I need this!" Sonic whispered. Shadow looked into his eyes, and realised that Sonic was absolutely helpless here. He had never asked anything like this of him before. He was desperate. He just wanted to be with his friends. Shadow didn't blame him and it was for that reason, he eventually agreed.

Tails placed the bracelet on his wrist and it immediately locked into position. Shadow couldn't remove it. An almighty surge of Artificial Chaos went directly into his veins. I caused him to heave, his crimson red eyes glowing. He doubled over. Sonic on the other hand, began to glow, incredibly brightly. Lighting up the entire room. Before Shadow could do anything to help, the Artificial Chaos completely overwhelmed him and he passed out.

Through the darkness, Shadow could hear voices.

"Oh no! What have I done!" One voice cried.

"Hey, easy. Tails. This is Shads. He'll be fine." Another voice said. One very annoying voice.

Shadow came too and open his eyes, the crimson red iris' still glowing. Sonic was delighted.

"See. Told you." He grinned. He was hovering over him. Shadow was glad he was alright. Still a ghost but no longer completely white. He now had a significant blue tint, which suited him. He also seemed a bit more solid, not quite so see-through. But the fact that now everyone eyes were now following him around the room. Yes, he could be seen. It had worked. Shadow sat up. His head was throbbing. Sonic hovered down to sit next to him.

"Hey, you alright? What happened?" He asked.

Shadow rubbed his face and ran his fingers through the quills on the back of his head.

"Chaos Overload!" He sighed, heaving. Sonic sat up, looking shocked.

"Well." He said. "That's a first!" He added, without thinking.

Shadow both growled and smirked at the same time and rounded on the ghost.

"Don't start!" He hissed.

Sonic giggled.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five – Eclipse**

Chaos Overload! It was indeed a first. Shadow had never experienced it before. He didn't even believe it possible. Especially now, when natural Chaos was incredibly scarce. If it wasn't for his Chaos Inhibitors, the gold rings on his wrists, the overload would have Chaos Blasted Tails' House and everyone in it. He was sitting on that much power. They were buzzing on his wrists, being pushed to their absolute limits. He was standing there, visibly shaking. His red eyes still glowing, desperately trying the balance it all, so that he could at least function.

Sonic could see him struggling. He had to do something. He was fed up of being 'the useless ghost'. He had an idea.

"Hold on, Shads!" He said, and with that, he disappeared, straight into Shadow's chest. Shadow could feel him, inside of him. He swore very loudly.

'That's not wise!' He screamed inside his head. He doubled over again. With his own Chaos, plus the Artificial, and now Sonic's on top, it was definitely too much. His Chaos Inhibitors would surely break. He was going to blast, and have no way of stopping it.

But he didn't. In fact, the opposite happened. He felt the Chaos within him begin to calm. To reduce down to more manageable levels. He stopped shaking, his eyes stopped glowing, and he felt a lot better.

'What did he do?' Shadow thought, but as he got up and looked down at his chest. He couldn't feel the Blue Blur inside of him anymore.

"Sonic?" He asked, concerned. He looked around him, there was no sign of him. Some others who were in earshot and saw what happened, also looked around.

"Sonic?" He said, again. But the Blue Blur suddenly piped up.

"Hang on, Shads!" He said. Shadow looked around. Sonic couldn't been seen anywhere, just his voice could be heard.

"Where...?" Shadow was about to ask, when Sonic cut across him and gave him his answer.

"In here!" He said. His voice was coming from the bracelet Shadow was wearing. The blue gem was now glowing. "And I think that should do it!" He said. Shadow felt a enormous surge of Chaos and then suddenly it settled, completely stabilising. It wasn't going to go haywire anymore. Shadow was seriously impressed.

"What did you do?" He asked the bracelet. He was now feeling perfectly back to normal. There was a pause before Sonic answered.

"I've turned the strength of this thing down." He said. "You don't need it set so high and..." He added. "There's even enough space for little old me to hide in here." He grinned. But suddenly someone came over.

"You not that old, Sonic!" They said. Shadow looked up. It was Amy. It was the first time she'd approached them since Sonic's reveal. She had been watching them.

Sonic could be heard sighing from inside the bracelet. He emerged from it in a stream of Blue-white ectoplasm drifting upwards and turning into a ball-of-light just above their heads. Shadow raised an eyebrow, it seemed the Artificial Chaos was doing strange things to Sonic. Not just to him. Giving him new abilities, by the looks of it. Yet nobody seemed surprised anymore. They had all seen too much, over this last week. Sonic sighed again, his ball-of-light hanging somewhat.

"When you come to end of your life, Amy, that's makes you old. No matter how long your life expectancy is." He shrugged. He drifted down silently, so he was now eye level with Amy. She huffed.

"But it's not fair!" She squealed. Sonic's ball-of-light hung in the air again.

"No, it isn't." He said. "But that's the way it is." He shrugged.

All of the sudden, Knuckles butted in, having realised something.

"Wait!" He said. "There's a link, isn't there between you and Chaos dying. This whole thing didn't start until you..." Knuckles let the sentence, he didn't know how to finish it.

Sonic moved over to Knuckles, still a ball-of-light.

"Popped my clogs!" He grinned. Then he sighed. "Your right." He said. "There is. I was the Life-Force behind the Chaos. So when I died, so did Chaos. I swear I didn't know. I only found out recently." He defended. He wasn't going the tell that Shadow told him, something the Black Hedgehog appricated. Knuckles was stunned but then he sighed.

"You know, if you'd had a kid, Chaos would have been saved!" He said.

Shadow smirked, scoffing slightly. Sonic! Father a child! He never heard anything so ridiculous in his life. He very much had his own opinions on the opposite sex. Unless you worked in brothel, of which he regularly frequented, he just wasn't interested. Very crude as Rouge found out to her dismay. He was beginning to wonder if Sonic had ever done the deed with a girl. Shadow was certain he definitely hadn't with Amy. If he's had, Sonic had kept the when, where and who, very close to his chest. Shadow smirked, he wouldn't put it past the Blue Blur do something like that and keep it a secret. Silence fell until Sonic finally moved back towards Amy again.

"You know, I thought about it." He sighed. Shadow raised an eyebrow again. Sonic continued. "But I just couldn't do it." He said. Amy cried. He sighed. "But that was nothing to do with you, Amy." He hurried, trying to calm her. "You see. Any child of mine, would also suffer the same fate as me. Drop dead, ridiculously young. I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't do that to a child. Trust me, it's not a life I would choose for anyone. The price-tag is just too dam high and to dam unfair." He spat. Amy sniffed and then, all of a sudden, whirled around at Shadow.

"But what about him?" She spat, pointing the him. "He has the same powers as you, and hasn't paid anything!" She cried. Shadow growled, hissing like mad, but Sonic immediately put his ball-of-light between them, moving incredibly fast.

"Amy!" He spat, very loudly. "Shadow's price has been paid, and if anything, the price-tag was far higher!" He growled. Shadow went white. He knew what Sonic was talking about. But Amy was upset.

"What do you mean?" She asked. Sonic glared from his ball-of-light.

"The price was paid." He said again. "Just not by him, and I know he'd do anything to swap places with her." He sighed. "I know I would. I would rather die for my powers, then for any of you guys do it for me." He spat, bitterly.

Shadow gulped. He was talking about Maria. He'd never thought about her death like that, but Sonic was right. It brought the pain, grief and guilt all back again. He growled. He heard Amy apologising but it wasn't enough. He walked away from them, to a corner of the house. He needed to be alone. Not easy in a house so full.

He stood there, going through the events of that day, wondering of he could have done anything to save her. But the more he thought about it, the more he realised there was nothing that could have been done. Maria was destined to die. He was not at fault. Shadow took comfort in that, he'd be blaming himself for so long. After a while, someone spoke to him.

"Hi." He said nervously. "You alright?" He asked. It was the idiot Blue Blur. Shadow growled, he blamed him for bringing all the memories back that he'd trying to bury for years. He wasn't happy. He looked up, to find Sonic back to his normal ghostly self, a Hedgehog again. He looked guilty, biting his lip.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you." He said honestly. Shadow accepted his apology but he didn't feel better. He turned away from the ghost and looked to the rest of the house.

There was a lot of frustration in Tails' lounge. It was the only place in the whole area with enough Chaos to survive. Especially for the high-level Chaos Sapients. If they left, they would pass out again within a matter of minutes. They were trapped here. Tails was doing his best to help. Creating more Artificial Chaos bracelets for them to where. Both the Hedgehogs watched him as he placed the bracelets on their wrists. They saw how they too got overwhelmed by the Artificial Chaos before eventually recovering. Shadow smirked.

"Now you know how it feels." He hissed. Sonic looked at him.

"Don't be cruel, Shads. Tails is only trying to help." He sighed. "Pity he can't make one of those bracelets for everyone on the planet." He shrugged.

Ding!

It was like someone had struck a bell inside Shadow's head, his eye's widened. All thoughts of Maria when straight out of his mind as he proceeded to have a biggest brainwave of his life. An idea, so immense, so crazy, it might just work. Shadow was excited, he'd never had one of these before and completely forgot himself.

"No!" He said, moving away from the wall. "But maybe the Ark can." He gasped. He was panting heavily.

"What?" Sonic asked. Shadow looked at him.

"Your a genius!" He stammered and proceeded to walk right to the centre of the room, getting everyones attention and complete silence. Sonic was confused.

"What?" He said again, absolutely stunned. Shadow had never, ever said that to him before. What was going on? Shadow ignored him. Everyone was staring at him. He ran his fingers through his quills on his head, almost to the point of pulling them out. His mind was racing so much, it left him panting.

"There got to be a way!" He muttered. "No!" He spat. "That won't work, its a stupid idea..." He hissed. He was pacing the room, rubbing his face.

Finally, Sonic figured it out, and moved straight to his side. Shadow had had an idea. Sonic may be been only a ghost, but he knew exactly how to get the best out of that mighty Black Hedgehog.

"Run with it, Shads." He encouraged. "It doesn't matter how stupid it sounds. Right now, we need anything we can get." He said, enthusiasticly. When it came to having any ideas on how to fix the Chaos problem, everyone was clueless. Even Knuckles. They were running out of time. It was very frustrating and now very desperate.

Shadow looked at the ghost, not convinced on how he could help, but he was right about this being potentially their last chance. Eventually, he relented.

"OK, Fine." He spat. There was a long pause. Shadow looked at the ghost.

"Seeing Tails create these bracelets..." He said, indicating his own. "Made me realise that you can take old and outdate technology and revitalise it into something new."

He panted. Sonic frowned.

"What?" He spat. "Like regeneration?" He asked. Shadow rounded on the ghost. He was spot on.

"Yes!" He hissed. "Exactly, I've seen Tails do it here, and Eggman was also doing it with Gerald's old robot designed in the underground Base." He said. Sonic was surprised.

"I don't remember those." He frowned. Shadow smirked.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. I blew them all to hell." He evilly sniggered. But suddenly they were both interrupted. It was Tails.

"But whats that got to do with the Ark?" He asked. Shadow whirled rounded. He sighed.

"The entire Ark runs on Artificial Chaos, with those machines." He said, pointing to the Generator in Tails' House. "So!" He gestured. "There must be a way to..." Shadow thought, but Tails was cut across.

"A way to use the Ark to create an Artificial Chaos Field around the planet, thus, regenerating it." He thought aloud. Shadow was now excited. The Fox was spot on.

"Yes! Dam it. Kid, your good!" He said, smirking. Tails was both surprised and delighted at the compliment but also was confused.

"But how?" He asked. "How are we going to get enough Artificial Chaos down to the planet?" He frowned. Shadow's smirk broadened, he knew the answer.

"With The Eclipse Cannon!" He hissed, very coldly.

Silence greeting Shadow at this. The last time the Eclipse Cannon was fired, it nearly destroyed the planet, and now Shadow was planning on firing it again. Sonic's brain fried as he tried to process this.

"Wait! Whoa. You can't fire the Eclipse Cannon, remember what it did last time." He exploded. But it was Tails who calmed him.

"You could." He said. "If the Eclipse Cannon was rigged the fire an Artificial Chaos Field, rather then a laser beam." He thought aloud. Sonic was still going mad.

"That's one hell of a long shot. Guys!" He said. "You have no idea if it will work." He panted. "Plus, where you going to get that kind of power?" He asked.

Shadow smirked.

"With this!" He hissed, and pulled the Chaos Emerald out of the quills on his back, and held it aloft. Sonic's brain melted.

"OK, Shads. This is a stupid idea." He said. "Those things are dead!" He spat, pointing at the Emerald. Shadow gritted his teeth.

"Not entirely." He hissed at Sonic. There was still a very small speck of light white inside the almost clear Emerald. "I can still feel Chaos within them, but we don't have much time. For this to work, it has to be timed perfectly. When Chaos dies, it's gives out one last enormous surge of energy in a final ditch attempt to save itself. That surge should be enough power to create the Artificial Chaos Field. Then the Artificial Chaos of the Ark itself should be enough to maintain it from then on. I will need all seven Emeralds, plus the Master Emerald. Plus whatever Artificial Chaos the Ark itself can give. I've calculated that that should do it. Tails will need to make enough bracelets for everyone so I can take that Artificial Chaos Generator back with me. I'm going to need it." He stated. He sighed. This was a big ask and Shadow knew it. Sonic was still struggling to process this. So was Knuckles, who wasn't happy about the idea of surrendering the Master Emerald to Shadow. Sonic came to just one conclusion.

"Shadow, your crazy!" He spat. "Miss-time it and we're done for!" He huffed. Shadow smirked. A smirk which broadened very quickly. There were times when, yes, he was.

"Yes!" He spat, very coldly, agreeing with the ghost. Sonic was surprised, he wasn't expecting that. Shadow moved right up to him, almost touching nose to nose. "But I don't see you coming up with any better ideas." He hissed. Silenced responded to Shadow, again.

Quite simply, there wasn't one.

As crazy as this was, this was their only chance.

Could Shadow The Hedgehog save the world?


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six – Emeralds**

It wasn't a very popular idea. To leave the entire saviour of the planet down to the 'bad guy'. Shadow still wasn't trusted. It didn't going down very well, at all. But Shadow had changed and as he realised, he was still changing. Many influences around him was causing it, but the main one was the Blue Blur, himself. His goody-goody-two-shoes attitude had been rubbing off on him for years. But now he had the chance to prove, once and for all, to the people of Mobius, that he too could be the hero.

Shadow frowned. 'Hero?!' He thought. He spat. He was no hero. As far as he was concerned, he was just doing his job and nothing more.

'But you are a hero!' a small quiet, voice said inside his head. He instantly recognised it. Sonic had definitely crossed the line this time. He swore very harshly at the ghost.

'Oi!' He spat with his thoughts. 'Get the hell out of my head.' He said angrily. Sonic gulped.

'Easy, Shads. I'm not in your head.' He defended. 'I'm inside the bracelet. It just so happens I can hear your thoughts while I'm in here. I didn't realise this last time.' He added. He could also use his normal voice from in there was well, if he so chose. Shadow stopped. He had wondered where the ghost had gone. Shadow had been walking away from Tails' House, through the snow, on a mission. Shadow's idea had triggered one hell of argument in Tails' Lounge. Sonic, unable to cope, had promptly vanished. Shadow didn't need him, he could stand his ground on his own, and very much did. He'd won, and was now out hunting the Chaos Emeralds. They needed all seven. With Tails having two Chaos Emeralds in his workshop and he himself having one, there were four still out in the wilderness.

'Do you know where they are?' Sonic nervously asked from within the bracelet. Shadow looked at it, especially at the blue gem within it. As it happens, Shadow did know exactly where the Chaos Emeralds were. Eggman. But he could feel Sonic's fear. Shadow could feel Sonic's emotions as well as hear his thoughts and most likely, vice versa. The argument had completely overwhelmed Sonic, hence his sudden departure. He must have been inside the bracelet when Shadow had completely exploded. He'd well and truly lost his temper. It was how he won the argument. He was still reeling from it, even now. Sonic must have felt everything, his dark and incredibly violent temper must have really frightened him. Even though Sonic had his own very dark temper, he never remembered it afterwards, to Shadow's complete surprise. Therefore, Sonic was not used to such violent Chaos Darkness. Shadow bowed his head, the guilt was back. Sonic suddenly perked up.

'Hey.' He reassured him. 'Don't feel guilty. It wasn't your fault. You didn't know I was in here. I'm just remember, next time, not to cross you, thats all.' He said, still nervous.

Shadow gulped. Was Sonic...scared of him? He swore, this was the last thing he wanted. It was true, Sonic had never really seen him properly loose his temper before, and this was not the way he wanted him to see it, either. Right now, he didn't want to loose his only friend. Everyone else had walked out on him. Even though that had eventually agreed with the plan. Knuckles was out fetching the Master Emerald and some of the others were also out hunting Chaos Emeralds. Very angry, Shadow didn't stick around to find out who.

Sonic had gone very quiet and Shadow carried on walking. The outside temperature was still very cold. There was still snow underfoot, but at least the blizzard has stopped. Sonic was still in the bracelet, Shadow could feel him in there. But the silence was driving him mad. He was a Hedgehog who'd normally never shut up, so this was incredibly out of character. The guilt was horrendous, Shadow had to say something.

'Sonic?' He thought, hoping the ghost would hear him. 'Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. You were right. I didn't know you were there. Please don't be frightened. At least, not of me.' He sighed. There was a long silence until finally Sonic spoke.

'You know.' He said. 'I've been listening to your thoughts, and your quite sincere in here. Pity you don't let it show out there.' He said, shyly. Shadow gritted his teeth and hissed. Sonic reacted very quickly.

'I know, I know.' He said. 'Its not your way. I understand why now. Your cold, hard exterior is extremely thick and very hard to crack. I can feel the Chaos Dark from here, and wow, its pretty powerful stuff. I can see how it can rule you.' He wondered. But Shadow cut across him.

'It doesn't rule me!' He spat. 'Nothing does!' He leered. He took that comment very personally. Sonic rolled his eyes.

'And don't I bloody know it.' He giggled, then his heart fell. 'Sorry. Shads. I didn't mean to offend.' He apologied. The fear was back, and Shadow hated it was a passion. Sonic didn't deserve to be so scared, he'd done nothing wrong. Shadow stopped again.

'Please.' He pleaded. 'Don't be frightened. I swear I would never hurt you.' He said, honestly.

There was quiet before Sonic starting giggling again. The fear easing.

'Still sincere.' He grinned. 'I wished I'd known when I was alive, then I wouldn't have wound you up so badly.' He sighed. 'Your an idiot. You can't hurt me, I'm a ghost. Remember!' He mocked.

Shadow smirked. He was pleased, Sonic was beginning to relax again, he just needed a little push. He started walking again, a sight bounce in his step this time. Shadow raised an eyebrow, smirking.

'Oh really!' He mocked. 'I'm immortal. I can do anything!' He teased.

Sonic went absolutely mad.

'What do you mean 'you can do anything?' I'm yet to see you do anything useful, except what, kill people, and what use is that...' He spat. Sonic ranted and raved at Shadow for the best part of ten minutes, while the smirk on his face slowly grew broader and broader, as the evil swelled up inside of him. Only when Sonic eventually felt it, did he realise that he'd been conned.

'Why you!' He spat, swearing at him, throwing several, very harsh expletive deleted at him. He fallen for Shadow's tricks again. He always did. Shadow hissed.

'Gotcha!' He leered, triumphantly. This completely made Shadow's day. All elements left over from his temper were now completely gone. His lip curled. Sonic huffed.

'You evil git!' He spat. Shadow smirked.

'Yes.' He hissed coldly, in return. He was, and incredibly proud of it. Sonic growled.

'I hate you.' He cried. Shadow rolled his eyes.

'No, you don't!' He hissed. 'Who else would let you tease them, so badly.' He smirked. Sonic sighed.

'No one, really.' He said, honestly. Then he paused. 'I overheard you earlier. Do you really consider me a 'friend'?' He asked. Shadow stopped walking and thought.

'Yes!' He said honestly.

'Why?' He asked. 'I thought you hated me!' He said. Shadow spat. It was a very pointed question. He didn't want to answer, but he'd never had anyone get so close before.

'I don't hate you.' He said, honestly. 'It's just I don't want to be...' He stammered. Shadow let the sentence hang, he just couldn't finish it. It was to much of an admission. An admission of weakness. Sonic smiled.

'Alone!' He said. Shadow closed his eyes and nodded. Sonic sighed.

'It's not an admission of weakness, Shads, you not wanting to be alone. Your immortal. Its understandable. Us, mortals, we come and we go, but your always left behind. Always there, always alone, and you don't want that. I don't blame you. Look, I'm a ghost now and have the potential of being as immortal as you. When this is over, and I'm still around, then sure, I'll be there. You have my word.' He smiled. Shadow was stunned.

'You'd do that for me!' He said. 'I don't deserve it!' He spat. Sonic's smile broadened.

'Isn't that my choice.' He said. 'If I do make it through this, I wouldn't want to be alone either.' He shrugged. Shadow was still taken aback.

'Thank you.' He stammered. But Sonic began to giggle.

'Pleasure.' He said, but he continued giggling. Shadow got frustrated.

'What?' He spat. Now Sonic was really giggling.

'Still sincere!' He teased. But Shadow growled.

'Enough!' He spat. He was now very angry and as the Chaos Dark inside of him flared. He proceeded to verbally rip Sonic to pieces. He'd cross the line again. Gone too far. To remind Shadow of something he considered weakness, such as sincerity, was a bad idea. The Blue Blur let him, he didn't fight back. Sonic was glad to have Shadow back to normal, but he was incredibly harsh. It upset him, but he tried not to show it, being very apologetic. He deserved it. More fool him, for getting inside Shadow's head. Next time, he'd try and not be so invasive. When the Black Hedgehog was done, Sonic quietened right down. That was him told. Shadow did enjoy the fun and games, but he also liked his privacy. He let Shadow be.

Time to leave him alone, for a while, not permanently, he'd given his word. He sighed. He now understood Shadow, properly. Why he did what he did and the way he did them. He was a complicated soul and all Sonic wanted to do was help, no matter what he said. He was incredibly loyal to Shadow. He had no idea why. Maybe it was because of his past. Back when they first met, when his memories were constantly getting wiped and that if Sonic didn't fight for him, then no one would. He didn't feel sorry for him, he felt that there was injustice involved. That it just wasn't fair.

Sonic couldn't see anything from inside the bracelet, but he found it strangely soothing. Very quickly, he found himself feeling very sleepy, for the first time since he died. Be long, he was asleep, purring gently.

Shadow was fuming. That dam ghost had gone to far. Treading on some serious toes. He had the ability of being sincere, yes, but he chose when he to be and nobody else. He saw it as a weakness, which he absolutely despised, hence his explosion. He closed his mind off to the ghost. No more intrusions. Sonic had quietened right down again, and now it was Shadow's turn to eavesdrops.

He was stunned. He had no idea that Sonic was so loyal to him, or his reasons why. He felt guilty again and tried desperately to hide it from the ghost. He didn't deserve it. But the Blue Blur could seriously get out of hand and needed disciplining. He smirked. To discipline, never push. He'd done that before and never again. That was he job. To keep that total mad house in check. Yes, he did exploded of him, yes, he did upset him, but Sonic needed limits. If Shadow didn't give him any, he'd be uncontrollable. He could feel Sonic beginning to settle. Shadow took a deep breath and became extremely calm. A calm that can only come from a creature of Chaos Dark. Incredibly soothing, to Sonic, hopefully. Before long, he could hear soft rumbling coming from the bracelet. He smirked.

'Sleep, old friend.' Shadow thought, forgiving him. He couldn't be permanently angry at the Blue Blur. There was something about Sonic which meant he never could be. Shadow smirked. He knew what. Sonic's downright selflessness. The absolute willingness to risk everything for someone else. Quite often, for people he didn't even know. Even him, Shadow. He didn't need it, being immortal but Sonic did it anyway, time and again, right down to his death. Shadow always had been truly taken aback by that, even though he'd never admitted it to anyone. To be considered in such high regard like that. Being a 'bad guy', he'd never experienced this before, and never expected to either. Being evil, who would ever save him?

He sighed. But now, he wasn't alone, and right now, he needed that. He had someone by his side, someone to protect. They had been through so much together, both good and bad. Neither of them was perfect. They both has their flaws and yet even after death, they were still together.

'I've got this.' He hissed in his thoughts, determined to see it through. He was right about the Ark and he knew it.

He had been travelling across the countryside away from Tails' House towards Eggman's territory. He couldn't run at full speed, the thick snow prevented him. Shadow knew where the Chaos Emeralds were, or at least he had a very good hunch. Eggman had a least three to his knowledge, maybe even four and would almost certainly be as confused with the current Chaos situation as everyone else. Therefore must be intending to study the Chaos Emeralds in his high-tech science laboratory. Shadow smirked. There was only one of Eggman's Bases that had a science laboratory, and that was where he was heading.

The Base in question, which was the only one that wasn't military, was the most heavily defended, by far. A high-tech research Base, Eggman quite often designed new robots from within there. Shadow had been in there, once, years ago, back when he was working for him. It was impressive, and now Shadow tried to remember the layout of the place. But he had to admit, it was only a one off visit and it was a long time ago. He had very vague recollection that the science laboratory was right in the centre of the Base.

One thing he did definitely remembered, was that the Base was very well hidden and difficult to get into. But Shadow was given an access code on his last visit. Did it still work? Unlikely, but worth a try.

It was not worth attacking the Base head on, especially alone. Sonic may have been with him, but what could a mere ghost do? No, he was better sneaking in around the back. But as he approached the Base, night was falling all around him. The snow was beginning to fall and the wind was picking up. Shadow smirked.

'Another blizzard!' He thought. 'Perfect!'. He added. It was ideal cover for him to sneak into the Base. He just needed to take shelter until it was in full flow and then move in.

The Base itself was very unassuming. A large flat rectangular building, only one storey high. But Shadow knew that most of the Base was underground. It wasn't as large as the last one he was in, but that the science laboratory was relatively near the surface. Only one storey or so beneath the ground. Shadow ran through the snow over a hill and saw the Base in a valley, just the other side. It was so heavily buried in snow, that unless you knew it was there, it could have been easily missed. Some of the snow had been cleared on one corner of the Base, which meant someone was in.

He was right. Eggman was in. But as the snow and wind picked up, Shadow found himself being forced to move to avoid being buried. He slide his way down the hill, and before he could stop himself, he slipped, and found himself buried beneath the snow at the foot of the hill. Shadow cursed. He really hated snow, but then he realised that the snow was so thick, that he could potentially tunnel through it. As the temperature plummeted, he wondered how well the Base's defences were working in these harsh winter conditions. As he span into a ball, and moved through the snow, melting it with friction, the answer was simply, not very. As he collided with the edge of the Base, he found cameras and defence robots all frozen solid.

It seemed that Eggman hadn't bothered to rectify this, as the Base was so well hidden under the snow. Shadow dug through the snow and felt his way along the outside wall, looking for a door. After some time, he finally found one, but it too was frozen as was the key code entry panel.

Shadow swore, this was awkward but in the current conditions, not that surprising. The door many have been surrounded by ice, but is wasn't completely frozen solid, if the system tried to open it, it would properly go. However, the key code entry panel on the other hand, was completely frozen right through to the core. Normally, Shadow would use his own internal Chaos the thaw it. Entirely possible, when you know how and Shadow knew more then most about Chaos. It would heavily drain him, but he would just recharge using the Chaos from the surrounding area.

That, now, was no longer possible. All of the Chaos from the surrounding area was gone. He would be using his own internal Chaos alone for the job.

Shadow looked around. There had to be another way in, this was almost certainly, the back door, and as Shadow punch is way through the snow above him, he was instantly forced back beneath the snow, the blizzard was that severe. Shadow fell back against the building and swore again. He was trapped. He had two choices, stay here and ride out the storm and look for another way in later or use Chaos the thaw the key code entry panel here. The latter was extremely dangerous. It would be easier to wait out the storm but time was not on his side. Shadow was certain the missing Chaos Emeralds were in this Base. He had to get in, now. If he drained to much thawing the panel without replacing the Chaos he would die. But he had backup. He could still hear Sonic snoring inside the bracelet.

Should he do this alone or ask for help? Shadow growled. Asking for help was not his way and he place both hands over the key code entry panel and concentrated. He pushed the somewhat limited Chaos within him towards his hands and into the panel. He could feel the panel begin to warm, it was working. But the Black Hedgehog was getting dizzy, his Chaos reserves were dwindling, he was close to passing out.

"SHADOW!" Someone shouted. Sonic had immediately been awoken by the sudden change in Chaos and had left the bracelet to see what was going on. The ghost hovered, pearly white with a slight Blue tint, horrified at Shadow. But he knew better then to try and persuade Shadow out of what he was doing. So, desperately wanting to help, he did the only thing he could do, give the mighty Black Hedgehog what he needed.

Chaos!

He disappeared back inside the bracelet. Shadow swore at him for leaving, he really needed him right now, but then felt an enormous surge of Artificial Chaos be released from the bracelet. Sonic had turned it up slightly. Shadow's body desperately craved it but understood the ghost's reluctance to turn it up to maximum. Remembering what happened last time. The rings on his wrist, the Chaos Inhibitors, were only just working. Another serious surge of Chaos, significantly larger then this one, and they would brake.

Without them, Shadow had no way of containing the Chaos within him, and he would explode, his Chaos would immediately drain and he would die.

The key code entry panel suddenly sparked into life and Shadow fell away from it. He was recovering on the surge of Artificial Chaos and he stood there panting, and now shivering. It was extremely cold. Sonic had left the bracelet again and hovered, his armed folded, looking throughly unimpressed.

"You know!" He spat. "I could have thawed that key code entry panel for you, all you had to do was ask." He hissed. Sonic was certain generating enough Chaos to do it. The ghost was extremely annoyed that Shadow had been so stupid to take such a risk like that, when he didn't need to. But Sonic knew that Shadow was extremely proud and very stubborn, and would never ask for help, ever.

Shadow smirked and while Sonic was still huffing, he dialled in the access code he'd been given. To both his and the ghost's surprise, it worked. Eggman must have forgotten to change the codes on this door. Must be one that was very rarely used. Shadow could feel heat from within the Base, and they both disappeared inside and closed the door behind them. It was very dark inside the Base, it seemed to be running on emergency power. Eggman must be struggling with the Chaos shortage was well.

Shadow sighed and looked around, his eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light. There was very little or no security. Eggman wasn't expecting company. Shadow smirked.

'In this blizzard, why would he?' He thought. Why waste precious resources on security you don't need. He slowly made his way through the Base. It was deadly quiet, and Shadow figured that any noise would echo quite badly and alert Eggman of their presence. He wouldn't fight. If alerted, he'd just take the Chaos Emeralds and run. Disappearing absolutely anywhere in the blizzard, to Shadow's utter annoyance. Shadow was used to sneaking around. He enjoyed it, the thrill of a hunt, the ambush, but it drove Sonic mad. Shadow had major trouble keeping a lid on the ghost. He would not stay quiet. Shadow would have throttled him if he wasn't already dead.

"Shhhh!" He hissed, very coldly at Sonic for the dozenth time in as many minutes. But the ghost was seriously annoyed.

"What the hell are you scared of?" He spat. "Your immortal and I'm dead. Neither of us has anything to lose!" He grinned. Shadow smirked. The ghost may have had a point but that was not the issue right now. He growled.

"Will you shut up!" He whispered. "If Eggman hears us, he'll leave, taking the Chaos Emeralds with him. We'll be searching for them all over again." He paused, swearing. "And I don't want to go back out into that dam blizzard any more then I have too." He spat. His temper was on the verge of breaking, badly. His crimson red eyes glowing with Chaos Darkness. Sonic saw those eyes and backed right down. He didn't want to be on the sharp end of that violent temper again. He dipped his head, folded his ears back and finally, fell silent. Shadow was still growling but acknowledged it.

"Thank you!" He hissed, sarcasticly.

They made their way through the Base, from one dark room or corridor to another. Even the lift was dark but rather annoyingly, out of power. So Shadow was forced to climb down to the floor below, to the science laboratory. Once there, finding the laboratory was very straightforward. It was the only room that was lit amongst the darkness. Shadow could also feel Chaos from within the room. It was only the slightest of changes, so subtle that it would have normally have gone unnoticed. But to Shadow it meant only one thing. The Chaos Emeralds were there. As they crept closer, they could hear mumbling from within the laboratory.

Eggman.

He was incredibly preoccupied. So preoccupied, in fact, that he wasn't aware of their presence. Shadow silently slide up to the open door of the science laboratory and peered round. He squinted as the light blinded him for a moment, but quickly made out that Eggman was sitting in a chair with his back to him. The science laboratory was a large circular room with the main workstation in the centre. The Chaos Emeralds had been placed in a glass examination booth. Hovering in mid-air, slowly turning. They too were dying. Almost clear except for the merest speck of Chaos Energy in the centre. Eggman was sat at this workstation, pouring over documents, referring back to the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow was sure he was desperately trying to find out why they had suddenly lost their power. To his delight, Shadow saw four Chaos Emeralds in the booth. He was relived. He wasn't sure if Eggman had three or four Chaos Emeralds but it now meant that he didn't have to search any longer. With his one Emerald, Tails' two and four here, all of the Chaos Emeralds were accounted for.

Looking past Eggman to the opposite wall, there was another entrance door to the science laboratory. It too, was open and Sonic, who had also been looking, suddenly spotted two faces look around the opposite door. He immediately recognised them.

"Silver!" He whispered, very surprised, and if Silver was here, it meant that his companion Blaze was almost certainly here too. Shadow growled. So that was who had been sent to search for the Emeralds. They had followed him here. But now Shadow had a problem. Against Silver's psychokinesis, Shadow was going to struggle to get the Chaos Emeralds before him. But he had two advantages, one, he had spotted Silver and Blaze but not vice-verser, and two, he had a ghost. All he needed to do was distract Eggman and grab the Chaos Emeralds and get out. A ghost was a perfect distraction especially when Shadow wasn't even sure if Eggman knew that the Blue Blur was dead. But there was a problem, the getting out part. Normally he would just Chaos Control out of there, but with the Chaos Emeralds so close to dying, not possible. Also fighting there way out might also be difficult, and who knows how many metres of snow were above their heads.

Then he had an idea. An idea so completely crazy, that it might just work. It was spawned from something the irritating ghost had said earlier. He whipped around and looked at Sonic. He'd be hovering next to him, trying to figure out what Silver and Blaze were up to.

"Get in the bracelet, I need to talk to you." He hissed, extremely coldly. So coldly, in fact, that Sonic didn't argue and immediately did as he was asked. After a few seconds, the ghost vanished into the large blue gem of the bracelet.

'What is this about?' He asked. Shadow could hear him in his thoughts.

'Does Eggman know your dead?' Shadow asked, very bluntly. A surprised silence answered but Sonic did finally reply.

'No, I don't think so.' He said, thinking. 'Why?' He added. Shadow smirked.

'I needed a distraction!' He said simply. Sonic giggled.

'Haunt the hell out of him. Sure.' He grinned. But then he frowned. 'But what are you going to do? Grab the Chaos Emeralds and Chaos Control out. I don't think thats even possible anymore.' He sighed. Sonic was right. To Chaos Control, required one fully working Chaos Emerald, but a huge amount of concentration. To teleport, you linked your Chaos to the Chaos at the location your were aiming for, so it relied on a large quantity on it to be available at the given area. To stop time, it took every ounce of internal Chaos you processed. But Shadow's smirked broadened. He grabbed his wrists and with a twist, there was clink-clink sound, which caught Sonic's attention. He panicked.

'Shadow?! What are you doing?' He gasped. The black hedgehog leered.

'I'm removing my Chaos Inhibitors.' He hissed. He knew that they wouldn't survive what he was planning to do. He stuffed the gold rings into his quills. 'I need you to turn the Artificial Chaos inside that bracelet to full strength. I'm blowing this place!' He smirked.

Chaos Blast.

Sonic was extremely stunned.

'What!' He grabbed. 'Are you crazy?' He spat. Shadow huffed. He wasn't going to answer that. They both knew that he was. But Sonic was besides himself.

'But you'll die!' he gasped. Shadow frowned. He had actually thought this threw.

'Potentially not.' He spat. 'If I do a controlled blast, and not use all of the Artificial Chaos from the bracelet.' He said. Sonic snorted, he didn't believe Shadow for a minute. He'd seen Shadow Chaos Blast before. When he blew, he went all out, every time. Sonic's reaction seriously annoyed Shadow.

'I don't see you coming up with anything better.' He spat. 'Plus.' He added. 'Getting the Chaos Emeralds past that Psychic is going to be difficult.' He hissed.

Shadow could see Silver and Blaze silently formulating their own plan to get the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman, on the other hand, was so engrossed in his work that he still had no idea that he'd got company. Shadow didn't have long, a matter of minutes before the competition struck. He sighed. He had to persuade the ghost and quickly.

'Please.' He spat. 'I need those Emeralds!' He hissed. Gentle persuasion was not one of Shadow's strengths. Silence replied until Sonic sighed and then...giggled.

'Are you actually asking me for help?' He grinned. Shadow spat, and swore under his breath. That dam ghost was going to make him swallow his pride over this one. He growled.

'Yes, I am!' He said, through gritted teeth, very slowly. He was not liking this one bit.

Sonic's giggling got worse.

'Can you say that, again?' He grinned, milking the Black Hedgehog for everything he had. Shadow temper flared and he nearly roared at him. But he quickly had to take control of it because he wasn't wearing his Chaos inhibitors, plus it would have given them away. Instead he pushed the purest Chaos Darkness he could, from his heart to the bracelet. Certainly enough to scare the ghost, who Shadow knew could definitely feel it.

It worked. He could feel fear. But it didn't last, as Sonic had to much respect for Shadow. He backed down.

'OK.' He spat. 'But why should I?' He huffed. Shadow smirked again.

'You said so yourself.' He hissed. 'I'm immortal and your dead. Neither of us have anything to lose.' He leered.

Sonic smiled. He agreed, but quickly realised that Shadow would not be able to control all that Chaos, without the Inhibitors, for no more then a minute. He had to scare Eggman and quickly. He smirked, he knew exactly how to do that.

Shadow was concentrating. What he was about to do was, going to take a seriously large quantity of self control. He tried to relax. When he was ready, he gave Sonic the signal.

Sonic increased the Artificial Chaos from within the bracelet to full strength and immediately left for Eggman. The incredible surge of Chaos buckled Shadow to his knees. Panting heavily, he looked to see Sonic's head pop out of the desk directly in front of Eggman, with a "Boo!", scaring him to death. He smirked, it was incredibly irritating when he did that. But Shadow was struggling, the Chaos was building, he had to move, now.

He saw a gap in Eggman's concentration and went for the Chaos Emeralds. He spin-dashed and broke the glass examination booth, grabbing all four Chaos Emeralds. Everyone was extremely surprised to see Shadow, but immediately panicked when they saw him. He was glowing red, his eyes were on fire and there was a scarlet hue all around him. They all knew that was coming.

Time's up.

BOOM!

Shadow couldn't hold the Chaos Energy any longer and realised it. The resulting explosion of highly powerful negative Chaos expanded out, incredibly quickly, in a bright scarlet red shockwave. It destroyed everything within its range, the Base wouldn't survive, and as for Eggman, Silver or Blaze, he didn't know or care about them.

He was currently fighting every instinct he had not to explode every ounce of Chaos he had. He couldn't afford it. He felt the bracelet painfully surge on his wrist. Shadow had used up all of the Artificial Chaos it could give. It began to break, the blue gem cracking, until finally, it shattered. There was a flash of white light as it broke, and he protected his eyes from the flying shrapnel. He was desperately trying to shut down the blast as quickly as he could. Shadow reached into his quills, grabbed his Chaos Inhibitors, and painfully forced them onto his wrists. He felt them working, calming the Chaos, but they were buzzing horrendously. Being pushed to the absolute limit again, only barely holding together. Shadow collapsed to his hands and knees, desperately trying to keep the leftover Chaos inside of him. He was violently shaking. Suddenly, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Hang on, Shadow!" It said, rushing towards him. It was Sonic. He was fine, the breaking of the bracelet hadn't really affected him, he just wouldn't be seen anymore. Shadow wasn't surprised the Blur Blur had made it, he was a ghost, after all. He dived straight inside of him, to Shadow surprise and dismay. He could feel him in there and began giving him his Chaos. With the bracelet no longer available, it was all Sonic could do.

It worked. Finally, the Chaos settled, but it had taken a severe beating. But there was another problem. Unfortunately the Blue Blur's own Chaos was also slipping away. He'd given Shadow everything he had, but it left him with only just enough Chaos to survive, if he used any of his powers, he was done for.

They didn't have much time.

Shadow rolled onto his back, panting heavily. Snow falling into the face, through the giant hole in the destroyed Base he just created. He felt the four Chaos Emeralds in his hands. He smirked, evilly to himself.

Was it worth it?

Hell, yes!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven – Loyalties**

Shadow was seriously full of himself. He always was after a Chaos Blast. He was on his way back to Tails' House. It was the last place he wanted to go, after the argument he'd had there, but he still needed Tails' two Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald. He was incredibly glad to get that dam Artificial Chaos bracelet off his wrist. It had been excruciatingly painful and the Chaos surges it caused, hadn't been fun. He rubbed his wrist as he trudged through the snow.

Sonic was hovering beside him. He'd lost his Blue tint, and his ball-of-light ability, and without the bracelet, he couldn't talk to Shadow in his thoughts either. He was incredibly annoyed, and had done nothing but have a go at him since they left the Base. Shadow had completely ignored him, his mind, very much elsewhere. His Chaos levels were incredibly low, Sonic's Chaos was only just keeping him going. This left Shadow with a problem. He smirked. Well, not for him, but for everyone else, maybe.

When his Chaos levels went this low, he would go extremely narcissistic, incredibly cruel and just didn't care anymore. But he'd decided he was going to fix the planet. He rather liked it, but to hell to anyone who tried to stop him. Shadow could feel his two fully loaded semi-automatic revolvers in his quills. He took them everywhere with him. As he smirk broadened, he had a feeling he'd be using them. He looked at the Blue Blur beside him, still having a go. Shadow sighed. He knew that Sonic would object, but as a ghost, how could he physically stop him? Shadow smirk broadened even further, quite simply, he couldn't.

Shadow just didn't care. Tails' House had appeared on the horizon and he had a job to do. He needed those Emeralds.

The blizzard was heavy as he approached Tails' House and saw several people outside the front door, wrapped in winter clothes, trying to pull a nearly dead Master Emerald out of a snow drift. They spotted him first, before he could make them out. Black on white is not the best camouflage. Someone spoke to him.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here." One of them spat, utterly displeased, straight at Shadow. He recognised the voice before the person. It was Rouge again. He could barely make her out underneath all those clothes.

But he didn't care, he wanted the Master Emerald. He pushed Rouge out of the way and went for the Master Emerald. Someone else spoke from behind him.

"Hedgehog!" He said, sternly. "The Master Emerald is mine." He growled. It was Knuckles. He'd been helping Rouge. Shadow hadn't recognised him under his winter attire either. But he'd had enough. Chaos Darkness filled his heart and flowed through his veins like liquid fire. His eyes glowed scarlet, as he gritted his teeth and growled. He had no intention of using any of his leftover precious Chaos here because he had other ideas. His mind hardened, his eyes glazed over as he pulled two fully loaded semi-automatic revolvers out of his quills, and aimed them both at Knuckles and Rouge. His killer instinct very much in charge.

"SHADOW!" Someone screamed, but he completely ignored them. He wanted that Master Emerald and if he had to kill to get it, then so be it. He was a professional assassin, an expert killing, with a licence to kill, and very much wasn't afraid to use it.

Sonic panicked. He'd had seen that look on the might Black Hedgehog's face before. Usually just before he killed. He knew from experience, that snapping Shadow out of his killer instinct was almost impossible. but not completely. It usually ended with him firing those dam guns of him. If Sonic could talk to Shadow, he had a chance. But Rouge and Knuckles were both extremely frightened, neither of them had ever had Shadow pull a gun on them before. They had both heard stories, but had never actually witnessed it.

Sonic screamed at Shadow again, but got nothing. He even moved between the guns and his friends and desperately tried to create a distracted, but no. Shadow was a slave to the killer instinct now, nothing could break it. He looked at Rouge and Knuckles, they couldn't hear him either. He was desperate. He had to think of something. Then he remembered.

The bracelet!

Shadow wasn't wearing it anymore. It had shattered. That meant that Sonic couldn't be seen or heard by anyone anymore. Sonic panicked, he was completely helpless. He was a ghost, and nothing more. He was going to watch Shadow kill his friends and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He didn't blame the Black Hedgehog. Shadow was this dangerous and this was the incredible risk he took having him as an ally. Tears ran down his face as he felt all hope was lost. But then, as he watch the tense standoff, he noticed that both Knuckles and Rouge were still wearing something that gave him a chance. Their own Artificial Chaos bracelets!

He was a ghost, time to exploit that fact.

If he dived into the bracelet, could Knuckles and Rouge hear him in their thoughts just like Shadow had? Right there and then, he had to try. He went for Rouge. Better to get her out first. He found her bracelet and dived into the beautiful large red gem. Once inside he felt a huge amount of fear. Sonic was surprised. As one of Shadow's closet friend, had she not seen him kill before. If the circumstance had never came up, then possibly not, no. But Sonic had, and knew what to do. He spoke to Rouge as calmly as he could. Her life now depended on it. But he didn't want to startle her.

'Rouge.' He said, as softly as he could, but the Bat still jumped. She had heard him. It had worked. But Sonic had to calm her down and fast. Shadow would pull the trigger at any sudden movements. He quickly spoke, explaining the situation.

'Rouge.' He said. 'Don't be afraid. It's me. Sonic. Yes. I'm still here. I'm inside your Artificial Chaos bracelet. From in here, I can hear your thoughts and vice versa...' He said but got cut across. Rouge sounded incredibly scared.

'He's going to kill me!' She cried. It hadn't taken her long to figure out how to answer back, but Sonic gritted his teeth and took charge.

'No, he won't.' He spat. Sonic felt Rouge falter, she didn't believe him, but he continued. 'But you have to do exactly as I say.' He asked.

He felt the Bat gulp, and then relax. She was agreeing with him. Sonic was relived.

'You have to surrender to Shadow, you have no choice.' He said. 'Hold your hands, making sure he can see the white of your palms and very, very slowly, start walking backwards.' He added. Rouge frowned, she was confused. It seemed a bizarre thing to ask. Sonic answered her.

'Shadow is running on pure instinct. His killer instinct. If, however, he perceives you as no longer a threat, he will rapidly loose interest in you. Leaving you free to escape.' He explained. The ghost felt Rouge's heart lift with excitement, but Sonic quickly intervened.

'Remember.' He added. 'Very calmly and very slowly, no sudden movements.' He asked.

With Sonic's encouragement, Rouge very slowly backed off from Shadow. The black hedgehog watched her, very carefully. But eventually, exactly as Sonic's had predicted, he lost interest. All his attention now on Knuckles. The Echidna was not happy about this.

Free from Shadow's gaze, Rouge successfully escaped. The Bat was panting and was both relieved and surprised at Sonic for this.

'Thank you.' She said, in her thoughts. But then frowned. 'But how did you know?' She asked. Sonic smiled.

'Years of hanging out with the guy.' He grinned. 'This hasn't been the first time I've stopped him from killing.' He added. 'Look, get to safety. I'm going back to get Knucklehead!' He panted. Rouge turned and made her way towards Tails' House.

'Good Luck.' She calls in her thoughts, and Sonic leaves her bracelet and flies through the air, leaving a pure while ectoplasmic trail behind him as he flew towards Knuckles.

The standoff between the Echidna and Shadow was now incredibly tense. Sonic couldn't foresee this ending well. Shadow now had both guns pointed at Knuckles. Sonic moved between them, but was unable to be seen by either. (Shadow could see him, but ignored him.) He searched out Knuckle's green gem bracelet and dived straight into it.

'Knucklehead!' He almost shouted. The Echidna eyes widened as he heard Sonic's voice in his head. Knuckles was incredibly stubborn, so the softly-softly approach was not going to work here. Sonic had to be very...well, blunt!

'Yes, I'm still here. Inside the bracelet, inside your head.' He said, very quickly. He gritted his teeth. 'Knucklehead.' He said again. 'Back down!' He spat. Sonic felt the Echidna clinched his fists. He too answered back with ease.

'No!' He said simply. Sonic swore to himself, he had to get the Echidna to back down, Shadow would kill him otherwise. He didn't have much time, the black hedgehog was loosing his patients. Sonic began to panic.

'Look at him.' Sonic said. 'He will kill you, if you don't give him what he wants.' He stammers. Knuckles spits.

'He's not having the Master Emerald.' He hissed. 'And if it costs me my life then so be it.' He added. 'He doesn't even know how to wield it.' He shrugged. Sonic screams in utter frustration. When it came to stubbornness, they were as bad as each other. But Knuckles was right about the Master Emerald. Only he knew how to wield it. But still he had to try and persuade him.

'Knuckles, he needs it to save the world. He's already got five Chaos Emeralds, but even with all seven, it won't be enough Chaos without the Master Emerald.' He pleaded. It was the original plan after all. But that didn't seem to matter anymore.

Knuckles listened to him carefully, but he just didn't believe him. He was surprised that they had five Chaos Emeralds already, but it didn't change anything. The Echidna gritted his teeth.

'Why should I believe you?' He asks. 'You've been siding with that Black Hedgehog ever since this whole thing started.' He hissed. This silenced Sonic. He was shocked. He'd never meant to abandon his friends, or give the impression that he had. He cried. As the tears ran down his pearly white face, he decide to hell with everything.

'I'm sorry, Knuckles.' He cried. 'I didn't mean to force you to question my loyalty like that. It's still here, with you guys, you and Tails. Always has been, always will be. It's just that without Shadow, I'm nothing. I rely on Shadow for my very existence, I don't have a choice. No, I don't know how it happened.' He sighed, shrugging. 'So, I thought, considering I was stuck with him, I'd guide down a path for the better. When he says he needs the Master Emerald to save the world. Please believe him. It's the absolute truth. I've been inside his thoughts, seen the calculations for myself. It's the only chance we've got. If we miss the Chaos Surge, Mobius is lost. Chaos will eventually dwindle and all life will perish. It's all we're got.' He added. Knuckles shifted, as he listened to Sonic. He confession had made him uncomfortable. He growled.

'But I still don't trust him.' He spat. Sonic sighed.

'Then don't.' He said, simply. 'In fact.' He added. 'You would be a fool to trust him. But I know Shadow. Remember, he's not going to be alone with this, I will be with him, and you trust me, don't you?' He asked. There was a long silence until Knuckles finally answered. He sighed.

'Sonic.' He said. 'I known you for a great many years, and to question my loyalties and trust of you, is, quite frankly, insulting.' He thought. 'But how well do you know Shadow?' He asks, but before Sonic could answer, Knuckles cut in first.

'Look, I'll do you a deal. Get him off me and I'll give you the Master Emerald. Not him, you.' He spat. 'And Tails' two Chaos Emeralds. I agree that this is only chance to save Mobius, but can you prove that you can control him.' He hissed. Sonic raised an eyebrow. He didn't exactly control Shadow, no one could. But could he still guide him? Could he still talk to him? Sonic had to try, but there was a problem.

'I can talk him down, but your going to have to speak my words for me. He's not listening to me as a ghost. He's not wearing an Artificial Chaos bracelet anymore, either, which means I can't access at his thoughts.' He said.

Knuckles shuddered. Who would want to access that killer's thoughts? But why would he take the bracelet off? He asked Sonic. He smiled.

'He didn't. He blew it to bits!' He grinned. Knuckles rolled his eyes, he wasn't very surprised at that, at all. Suddenly, he saw Shadow shift, growling loudly, cocking his guns. Time was almost up. Knuckles panicked.

'Ok, fine.' He stammered. 'Do what you need to do. Tell me what to say. Just talk him down.' He spat. Sonic agreed, but it was a very strange situation, to hear his own thoughts being spoken by someone else. It felt incredibly bizarre, but Sonic had to shake it off, he had a job to do. Shadow was a matter of seconds away from shooting Knuckles and he now had to use the Echidna's voice to talk him down.

But then he had an idea. It was a utterly crazy idea.

"Shadow!" Knuckles spoke, for the first time since the standoff started. It was incredibly loud and clear. "You don't want to do this. Do you honest think that killing the Echidna will achieve anything here. It would just a waste of bullets, don't you think!" He paused and grinned. "Whats the matter, Shads, cat got your tongue!" Sonic did have a lot of resistance from Knuckles in saying that last part. But he thought it might get the Black Hedgehog's attention if it wasn't 'Knuckles' talking. To make him think that the Echidna had been processed by the ghost. Knuckles took some persuading but Sonic knew that Shadow could be extremely curious in anything new or different. He very much wanted to play on that fact.

It worked.

Shadow frowned, absolutely stunned. He was completely confused. He was looking at an Echidna but hearing the words of a...Hedgehog. Again, it was the word, Shads, that got to him. It snapped him out of his killer trance and left him staring at Knuckles. He lowered his revolvers.

Sonic giggled, and Knuckles was seriously impressed. Sonic really did know that Black Hedgehog. They both agreed. Time to have some fun with him, but it would take some serious cooperation between them to pull it off. How good were Knuckles' acting skills?

"What the matter, Shads?" He said. "Do you not like my new outfit?" He grinned. Shadow was blown away by what he was seeing. Completely distracted away from killing Knuckles, he put his revolvers away, and walked up to the Echidna. He swore very loudly.

"Procession!" He spat, unable to quite believe it. "Bloody procession." He panted and then growled at Knuckles. "How long?" He hissed, very coldly. Sonic completely panicked. Shadow very much wanted to know how long he'd be able to do this. But technically, he wasn't. He was working with Knuckles. He was struggling, but it was Knuckles who came up with an answer first. He went very care-free. It was a very good impression of the Blue Blur.

"For a while." He spat. "Besides." He paused. "Since when do I tell you...everything!" He giggled, really emphasising that last word, just like Sonic would. It was very good. The ghost was seriously giggling, and Knuckles was having a hard time from cracking up himself.

But Shadow was believing them. He was completely convinced that Sonic had taken total possession of Knuckles. He walked up to the Echidna, almost touching nose to nose. He was angry that Sonic hadn't told him.

"Your a right piece of work." He hissed. Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Look who's talking." He spat back. Shadow growled at him, but then smirked.

"Now that you've got hold of the Echidna, the Master Emerald is mine." He leered.

This annoyed Knuckles greatly, but he couldn't break away just yet. Sonic took the lead, he knew what to say.

"Not so fast." He said, with Knuckle's voice. "I've been talking to Knucklehead." He said, the Echidna pointing to his head. "This isn't a forced possession, you know. He says that you can have the Master Emerald and Tail's two Chaos Emeralds under two conditions." He spat.

Wait a second. Sonic said one condition, not two!

Shadow growls at Knuckles.

"What?" He hissed, extremely cold. Knuckles took a deep breath and stood his ground. Shadow didn't scare him anymore.

"One." He said. "Is that you don't kill anyone, and two." He then smirked. "Is that I'm coming with you." He exclaimed.

What!

Sonic went mad at Knuckles from inside his bracelet as the Echidna proceeded to break the pretend 'procession'. He growled at Shadow.

"You need me." He said, completely ignoring Sonic. "If you take the Master Emerald, it won't work. Only I can wield it. I have heard about the Chaos Surge before. As Sonic explained, I agree, there is a good chance it might work." He sighed. The Black Hedgehog was stunned. One minute Knuckles is processed, the next he's not. What was going on? Knuckles turned away from Shadow to dig the Master Emerald out of the snow again. Then he stopped and thought.

"You know." He sighed. "There was no need to loose you temper over this with us. When you first came up with the idea, we didn't believe you that it would work, and with your reputation, how could we trust you? Since then, we have learned that there is more at stake here then just us and as for you, you are not alone. There is someone with you, we can trust. He's the reason why we've agreed to this." He added pointed to his bracelet. "Though I wasn't impressed when you Chaos Blasted Silver and Blaze." He huffed, but he then rolled his eyes. "Yes, the peacock and the pyromaniac will be alright." He grinned. Yes, the Echidna did have a sense of humour. "Sliver's psychokinesis just about saved them both from serious harm, but you got the four Chaos Emeralds, so you succeeded, I guess." He sighed again.

Shadow was completely taken aback by that, and watched Sonic leave Knuckles' bracelet and hover, pearly white next to him. Knuckles couldn't see him, but knew the he was there. He whirled round on Shadow, who was still stunned.

"Next time." He spat. "You ask us to trust you, don't loose your temper when we say no. Walk away, and give us time. Prove to us, that your worth it." He sighed. "You are dangerous. We have to protect ourselves. You have just tried to kill me and Rouge, and I've lost count the number of times, Sonic told me, you've pulled a gun on him. Shooting first and asking questions later, doesn't work around here. If you want to help us, then help us. If you don't, then leave, just don't drag everyone else along for the ride." He growled at Shadow. He then indicating towards the house. "Tails' has been working on your teleporter to the Ark, expanding it to take more then just you. It should be ready now to take the Master Emerald, the seven Chaos Emeralds, you, me and Mr. Ectoplasm to the Ark." He spat. Sonic giggled, and Shadow raises an eyebrow, smirking slightly. Knuckles had had enough, especially with Hedgehogs. They could be irritating as hell. He shouted at them.

"And don't mess this up!" He huffed.

They were now incredibly short on time. Less then twenty-four hours.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other.

That was them told!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight – Sacrifice**

It was amazing just how forgiving Knuckles could be. How he'd persuaded the others to follow suit. That was the exact reason why he was the leader of the group, and not Sonic. He was too much of an air-head for the job. It needed someone more grounded, and Knuckles was perfect. They had decided they were going to help them, even before Shadow and Sonic returned with the four Chaos Emeralds. They just needed to test their loyalties first, especially Sonic's.

Satisfied, arrangements were made for transportation to the Ark. Shadow was having mixed feeling about the whole situation. The only reason why Sonic's friends were helping him was because of Blue Blur, not him. As a creature of Chaos Dark, he never expected help from anyone. Yet, Sonic still had faith in him. He had no idea why. But Sonic's friends were right. Yes, he was extremely dangerous. That was the way he was and he wasn't changing, for anyone. But he took the jibs at his reputation to heart.

He growled. It had taken him years to buildup a reputation as feared as his was. He relished it, and didn't take too kindly at Knuckles saying it was untrustworthy. He was, just not by that Echidna. Sonic trusted him, and right now, he'd take that. He would have normally have pursued the issue, but now was not the time. He smirked as he watched Tails and Knuckles fight to get an extremely uncooperative Master Emerald into a position, so that it could be teleported to the Ark. It was so large that it was covered in a thin layer of ice. With the freezing temperatures, and was slipping and sliding all over the place. The situation amused Shadow, but then he saw Sonic, extremely white, hovering in a corner. He was about two or three feet from the ground, in a seated position. With his head in his hands, looking extremely glum. Shadow also noticed that he was flickering ever so slightly.

Everyone was ignoring him. He was completely invisible to all but Shadow. Who wondered over to talk. He looked up as the Black Hedgehog approached.

"Why am I here?" He asked, sighing. All of the questions to ask, Shadow wasn't expecting that one. He frowned.

"What do you mean?" He hissed, in return, somewhat cold. Not intentionally. Sonic sits up straight.

"I mean why am I here? Why did I come back when no one else did. I haven't seen or heard another ghost or spirit ever since I woke up like this." He sighed. He looked down at his hands. He flickered again. "My time is running out. The amount of Chaos I generate slowly lessens day by day and I can't help but shake the feeling that my fate is tied to what is about to happen on the Ark." He sniffed. He was crying. Shadow looked up. The ghost was right. Shadow to sighed, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Sonic was missing something.

"Don't you mean both our fates." He added. "My very existence is linked to your Chaos generation. If you go, so do I." He said sternly. He didn't fear death, the ultimate death. If it was his time, then so be it, but there was more to this. He watched Sonic flicker again. They really didn't have much time lift.

After much swearing and battling, Tails and Knuckles finally, and successfully got the Master Emerald teleported to the Ark. Tails returns to collect his two Chaos Emeralds and vanished. On his return, it would be their turn. Shadow looked at Sonic. The ghost looked scared. It was thanks to him he was getting this help. Help he'd since realised he had desperately needed. Time to take responsibility, as he watched Tails return from the Ark.

"Stay close!" He hissed to Sonic as he moved towards Tails. The ghost obeyed as they together used the teleporter. As Shadow watched Sonic, he wondered if ghost's could be teleported. There was one answer.

No!

Shadow landed on the Ark and was immediately to knocked to the ground. The space station was shaking so violently that it felt like an enormous earthquake on board. Knuckles was panicking, struggling to stay on his feet.

Shadow immediately knew why the Ark was shaking. Chaos imbalance. A massive one. There was now more Chaos, Artificial or otherwise, on the space station then there was on the entire planet below. He immediately ran for the Ark's main Console and began typing at speed and running several programs. Knuckles finally appeared at his shoulder. It had been years since the Echidna had been to the space station and had forgotten how large it was.

"What are you doing?" He panted, out of breath. As Knuckles asked, Shadow finished, and Ark stopped shaking.

"Stabilising the system." He said. "But I don't know how long it will hold." He added, looking worried. He heaved and looked around. It was a that point that Shadow realised that Sonic wasn't with them. Shadow swore, he'd left Sonic behind. But as he grabbed to teleporter to head back, he felt something wriggling inside of him. Shadow immediately stopped and rolled his eyes to Knuckles' complete confusion.

"Get out!" He spat, angrily. The wriggling stopped as Sonic's pearly white ghost head same out of Shadow chest as he emerged onto the Ark. Knuckles jumps a mile in seeing Sonic appear like that. Shadow wasn't surprised that the ghost could now be seen especially on the Ark, with the large volume of Artificial Chaos here. However he was still angry with him. Shadow didn't like his body being used as Sonic's own personal hotel.

"But you said stay close." The ghost whimpered. Shadow was throughly unimpressed. He growled at him.

"Not that close!" Shadow hissed. The ghost folded his armed, he was now hovering besides him.

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice." He huffed. "When I realised the teleporter wasn't going to work on me, I had to hide inside something solid and hope that would get teleported, and the near thing around me was you." He spat.

Shadow didn't argue back, the ghost had a point. He was just saving himself and he didn't blame him for that.

Then there was a slow drawn-out low rumble, and the Ark began to shake again. Shadow modifications had failed. Within minutes, the Ark's shaking was ten times worse then before. They had to stabilise the Ark, otherwise it would crash into the planet. The Artificial Chaos Shield was now the only way. Shadow realised that they had to move, now.

To the Eclipse Cannon.

Sonic wasn't happy. The last time they raced to the Eclipse Cannon, he had to go around the outside of the Ark. Shadow took them straight through it. It was at this point did Sonic truly realise how vast the Ark was and how it was such a labyrinth. Every room and corridor looked identical to the last. Sonic was seriously impressed on how Shadow had mesmerised it all. This was his home, after all. It also explained how Shadow had beaten Sonic to the Eclipse Cannon in that original fight. Going through was so much quicker then going around but Sonic was just glad that that Shadow was on their side nowadays.

Shadow's mind was racing, and finally they were at the Eclipse Cannon. Even though they took the shortest route, it still took ages to get there. He moved so fast that Sonic and Knuckles struggled to keep up. The Ark was so violently shaking that as they approached the main Console for the Eclipse Cannon, that Knuckles carrying the Master Emerald nearly fell off the bridge leading to it. The main Console was on an island platform in the middle of a vast black room with a bridge leading to it. All in solid metal, riveted together. If it wasn't for the railings, he would have fallen, to who knows where. Shadow shrugged, he had no idea and never investigated. Never needed to.

Next to the main Console was the interface where the Chaos Emeralds were to proudly sit, to power the Eclipse Cannon. Upon reaching the Console, he'd shoved the Emeralds in place and ran back to help Knuckles. The moved the Master Emerald into the position and hooked it up to the main Console.

Then it happened.

Suddenly the Chaos and Master Emeralds began to shine, brighter then ever before. The small specks of Chaos within them exploded outwards into a large expanse of energy. Their last ditch attempts to save themselves.

Time up!

Shadow swore. He had a matter of minutes to reprogram the Eclipse Cannon and fire it before the final Chaos surge was over. He leant over the console and worked as fast as he could, on the incredibly complicated task. The Ark was still shaking and Knuckles was struggling to stay on his feet. He stood in front of the Master Emeralds and raised his hands, waiting for the signal.

Sonic hovered between them and watched. His pearly-white see-through body hung in mid-air, absolutely helpless. He'd never felt so helpless, ever. He was desperate to help and yet, as a ghost, he could do...nothing. As the Ark's shaking got worse with the Chaos surge, he looked up at the Emeralds and was determined to do something. Anything! But what?

Shadow was panting. He'd never reprogrammed a computer so fast in his life. Within less them a minutes, gave Knuckles the signal to activate the Master Emerald.

The Echidna raised his hands.

"Here me, Master Emerald, lent me your power." He hollowed. Shadow gave Knuckles a sideways look. No way that should work. It sounded so lame, but as the Master Emerald began to glow even more brightly in response. Shadow was very surprised. Knuckles continued.

"Please." He pleaded. "Give the Eclipse Cannon your power!" He bellowed. The Master Emerald responded in ernest. Shadow could really feel its power now. All of the Emeralds were glowing incredibly brightly now. The Chaos surge increased its intensity tenfold. Knuckles was struggling to maintain it. He grabbed Shadow.

"Fire!" He screamed.

Shadow fired.

Nothing!

He swore very loudly.

"Not enough Chaos!" He screamed. He was out of ideas. They had given the Eclipse Cannon everything they had. It just wasn't enough. He had to think of something fast, otherwise they were done for.

The Ark was still violently shaking. So much so that Knuckles slipped and fell, hitting his head on the ground. He was out, cold.

Shadow would have helped but there was no time. He was desperate, he had a matter of seconds to come up with a plan, before the final Chaos surge diminished forever. He was sweating.

Sonic stared. Not enough Chaos. He generated Chaos. Maybe it might be enough to tip the balance. But there was no time think about it, it was now or never. Maybe he could do something after all. Anything to help.

He sighed. His own Chaos was almost gone. He flickered. But there should still be enough. If he did this, there was no coming back. No second chances. He'd be wiped out of nothing left to loose, and desperate to help, he went for it. This was reason why the Powers-That-Be had allowed him to return as a ghost, went so many others didn't. The save the world. Sonic smiled, he could live with that. He was the hero after all. But was he really saving the planet, or was he doing this for Shadow. Sonic sighed. He'd been an incredible friend, despite being the universe's biggest handful. But thats why Shadow made life interesting. Sonic would miss him, more then anyone.

He leveled out his body and dived straight the for heart of the Eclipse Cannon. Shadow saw and tried to stop him, but the ghost had already entered the Cannon, giving it all the Chaos he had left.

"Fire!" He screamed. Shadow objected but having no choice, he did as he was asked.

He fired the Eclipse Cannon.

It worked.

It began to whir. The large out casing of the Eclipse Cannon opened and split into four sections. The powerful laser cannon began to charge, taking all the Chaos energy from all the Emeralds. With seconds, full charged, it fired the enormouslypowerful yellow laser down on the helpless planet below.

Shadow watched as the laser hit the planet and surrounded it in a blanket of yellow.

Yellow this time, instead of green-blue. For thats the colour of the laser when its set to destroy. But that wasn't the aim here. But had he succeeded? Right there and then, he had no way of knowing, as the Eclipse Cannon didn't shut down. It wasn't meant too. But the shaking was now worse then ever and Shadow ran back to the main Console of the Ark, to try and stabilesit.

He worked his magic on the computer, and as the Chaos surge of the Emeralds ended. The Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald were now completely dead. Crystal clear. Lifeless. He then rerouted all of the Ark's Artificial Chaos towards the Eclipse Cannon. The Eclipse Cannon may have needed all of the Emeralds to fire, but the Ark alone was more then enough to maintain it.

Or it should have been. Shadow was struggling to get it working. The wasn't quite enough Chaos to stablise. He swore. They had given anything. Then he looked down at his wrists. His Chaos Inhibitors was still buzzing slightly. Shadow thought.

'Not quite everything.' He sighed. He would have removed the gold rings first, but there was no time. The Ark was beginning to break apart all around him. He placed both hands of the Console and concentrated. He proceeded to push the last of his Chaos reserves into his hands, giving the equivalence of the Chaos Blast directly to the computer.

Shadow screamed in pain as his Chaos Inhibitors shattered on his wrists, unable to maintain the Chaos any longer. With his Chaos Inhibitors gone, Shadow knew that this was the end. There was no going back. His eyes glowed red, with crimson hue all around him. He directed the energy into the console, emptying himself of everything. He gritted his teeth, still in total agony.

All of a sudden, the Ark stopped shaking and the Eclipse Cannon steadied. All was calm. He'd succeeded. The Artificial Chaos of the Ark, now perfectly maintaining the Eclipse Cannon.

But there was a problem. With Shadow directing all of the Artificial Chaos towards the Eclipse Cannon, plus his last of his reserves, there was none left, anywhere. Without Chaos, he collapsedto the floor. He was dying. Properly dying. But there was no one to save him this time. He'd given absolutely everything he had. Heaving, he looked back to the Eclipse Cannon to see that a certain someone still hadn't returned.

Sonic!

Shadow gasped. The sacrifice. Only now did the mighty Black Hedgehog truly realise what the ghost had done. Sonic had gave the Eclipse Cannon the extra Chaos it needed to fire. But what about his own sacrifice? He just didn't care. Sonic's seemed to mean more then his. He sat by the side of the computer console on the floor, unable to move, absolutely exhausted. He and Knuckles needed to get off the Ark, now, but he just didn't have the strength. They were both going to die up here. Knuckles was also too Chaos dependent to survive for long.

He rubbed his face, tears fell. They were not tears for Knuckles. He couldn't have cared less for that Echidna. Or for himself, for that matter. They were tears for someone who understood him, who'd been by his side since the beginning. Someone he finally mourned. For the first time in his life, he prayed. He prayed to the Powers-That-Be. He'd never believed in them until now. But as he lay on the floor dying, he prayed.

All the immortality, in all the universe was completely useless with no one to share it with. But with his Chaos completely gone, he had no idea if this would work.

He closes his eyes and gritted his teeth. He had literally nothing left to loose. But it was worth a shot.

'Sonic.' He thought. 'Take my immortality. You deserve it more then me.' He sighed. There was some truth in that sentence. Sonic had done more to help people on one short life then Shadow had ever done as an immortal. Sonic did deserve it more then him. But still underneath it all, there was one deep desire Shadow wanted. 'And make sure he's not alone.' He added. He knew that no immortal should exist on their own. It was the worse punishment you could ever give.

Shadow was loosing consciousness. The end was coming.

He didn't fight it.

He opened his eyes and looked around, one last time. He was completely content. To die on the Ark, the very place where he was created. He couldn't be more proud. This was his home.

He could hear the Eclipse Cannon rumbling all around him, doing it's job, saving the planet below.

He'd done it.

For the first time in his life, he smiled.

He closed his eyes and fell into darkness.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine – Eggman**

Shadow wakes with a start. Wait! What? How? He should be dead. Permanently. He wasn't even expecting to survive. So this was a surprise. He looked down at his wrists. A new pair of gold rings were there. Chaos Inhibitors. He frowned, extremely confused. He grabbed his head. It was absolutely throbbing. He had no idea how long he'd been out. Someone grabs him. They speak to him.

"Easy, big guy." It says in a warm but strong voice. "Finally your awake. Look, you'll be alright!" It sighed. Shadow frowned. His eyes were blurry. But as they became clearer, he noticed that the person holding him, was red, and extremely strong. They was only one who matched that description.

Knuckles!

Shadow's frown deepens.

How did they get off the Ark?

Shadow was so confused. He looks around the room. He was lying on a sofa in Tails' House, surrounded by people. He recognisedeveryone. Tails himself was there, along with Knuckles, Rouge, Omega, Blaze, Silver and Vector from the Chaotix. The others apparently had gone shopping. Life apparently returning to normal.

As he looked around, everything looked different, and yet the same. Everything looked exactly as it did before Sonic's death but there was now a slight yellow glow everywhere. Shadow frowned, as he tried to move. Not only did everything look different, it felt different too. He could feel the Artificial Chaos. His body was feeding off of it in ernest, fueling him for the time ahead. In fact, the world around him felt exactly like the Ark. It was far as he could see, there was no natural Chaos left anywhere. The planet was now perfectly stable, with it's new shield. Although this change was going to take time to get used to, he was incredibly relieved it worked.

He was panting, trying to process it all. Knuckles smiled at him.

"You did it." He grinned. "I owe you an apology. We all do. We just didn't believe it would work. Your a hero." He sighed.

Shadow growled. The word 'hero' grated horrendously with him, and he hated it. He was no hero. He was just doing his job, nothing more. Upon seeing Shadow distaste, Knuckles changed the subject.

"How are you feeling?" He asked. "You've been out for three months." He shrugged.

What! Shadow stared. Three months! What was going on? Knuckles continued.

"We thought you'd dead. When I woke up on the Ark, you were down. Even though all of the Artificial Chaos had gone from the Ark, redirected to the Eclipse Cannon, I was alright." He smiled, pointing to the bracelet Tails' created on his wrist. "But you weren't wearing one. Or your gold rings. Your Chaos Inhibitors either. Rouge had come to the Ark looking for us, and with her help, we brought you back here. We feared the worse. But when Tails examined you, you registered as Chaos dead." He paused. Shadow gulped. But Knuckles went on. "But when we looked further, we realised that you were somehow generating Chaos. An absolutely minusculeamount, but it was there. But how?" He gasped. "You were definitely registering as Chaos dead. So it can't have been you, you don't generate Chaos. Even though we weren't sure where this Chaos was coming from, your body was slowly feeding off of it." He sighed. Shadow again stared. Knuckles nodded. "So we made you comfortable and just left you. Over the last three months, we monitored you. That small amount of Chaos was healing you, very slowly, until a few days ago, when it finally triggered your regeneration." He shrugged.

Shadow rubbed his face with his hands. Now he knew why his head hurt. Tails came over and scanned him with something, an handheld device of some kind. Shadow instinctively back away. Knuckles calmed him but frowned.

"Easy." He said. "This is what we've been using to monitor you. It seems that Chaos that you were generating had gone now that your awake." He added. It was very strange.

Shadow looked around. He was glad to have survived, but what was going on? As he looked around, the others arrived back from shopping.

Amy, Espio and Charmy, were all arguing, but were extremely glad see Shadow had awoken. As they gathered around him, Shadow noticed that he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. But as his mind was still somewhat fogged, so couldn't think as to what.

He got up on his wobbly legs and walked to the window, to try and get some peace. He looked out of the window, and gasped.

It was a beautiful clear, sunny late Summer day and not a cloud in sight. The sky stretching as far as the eye could see. Shadow stared at it. Knuckles came up beside him again. He smirked.

"Yep." He grinned. "It's green. The press are calling it a 'pea soupier'" He giggled. Shadow raised an eyebrow. The sky was indeed green, but not as dark as the colour of peas. It was closer to pale lime green, which against the sun, looked very understood why. The blue sky mixed with the powerful yellow Artificial Chaos shield would make green.

Shadow looked around again, it seems everyone was getting used to the changes after several months. He was glad, and yet even amongst all of these people, he felt very alone. He sighed.

Yet he still couldn't shake that feeling, while he stood there, that something was missing. He didn't understand. He also felt stronger as he body adjusted to the Artificial Chaos that now surrounded him. The Artificial Chaos was far stronger here then it ever was on the Ark. A combination of the powerful Eclipse Cannon with the planet's ability to adapt to Chaos, had made it incredibly potent. Shadow now felt like he had the equivalent power to as though he was permanently carrying a Chaos Emerald all of the time, despite the fact they were dead on the Ark.

He sighed again. All this change was going to take some getting used to. But he growled. Something was wrong. He'd saved the world. It shouldn't have been that easy. Not that it actually was, but where was the consequence? The last time he saved the world, he'd paid dearly for it with his memories. They had since all been recovered. He'd stopped the Ark crashing into the planet, but got captured by Eggman and his memories swiped. But here, there was nothing.

Shadow gritted his teeth, and clenched his fists as he thought. This wasn't right. To do such a drastic change to the planet, must have consequences. If he felt more powerful, he highly suspected he was not the only one.

Shadow stayed at Tails' House for the next few days. He didn't really have much of a choice. He couldn't return to the Ark, his home, he would die. He sighed. The house was cramped and incredibly busy with people coming and going. Far too busy for Shadow's liking. He really preferredliving alone, and was eager to move on and look for a new home.

He had explored the local area a bit but stayed relatively close to Tails' House. The people there didn't seen keen to let him go, but with his mind still somewhat fogged, Shadow wasn't going to argue. He was spending some time in the house with a few of them, when everything changed.

All of the sudden, the ground began to shake, with a type of rumple Shadow recognisedbut hadn't felt in years. He felt in on the Ark more then fifty years ago. Gasping, he ran. Straight out of the door, and out into the countryside surrounding Tails' House. Coming towards him was a series of robots. Brand new, but with old designs. They were Gerald Robotnik's designs.

Shadow smirked. Now he understood. He had wondered why Eggman would invest time and effort into fifty years old robot designs. He'd seen them in that Base. Maybe even older. Yes, they have been tweaked slightly, but essentially remain the same. At the time, he hadn't understood. He'd thought these designs were obsolete, out-of-date, of no use to anyone. But they were all perfectly designed to work on the Ark. To work on one thing. Artificial Chaos.

Now that the entire planet ran on Artificial Chaos, Eggman was now more powerful then ever. Shadow's smirk faded and he growled. Eggman must have known, that Shadow would create an Artificial Chaos Shield around the planet. But that didn't make sense. He saw Eggman building these robots before Sonic was killed. Yes, he blew a whole load of them up, but other Bases must have been at work. Did Eggman know that the Blue Hedgehog was the Source?

Shadow thought. At a guess, yes, and that Sonic was dying. Hence the large scale preparations. Eggman must have foreseen the whole series of events and had gambled everything in being correct. If he'd had been wrong, the robots would have been useless, leaving him a sitting duck. It would have meant the end of him.

But he'd won, and was now approaching Tails' House was arguablethe most powerful robot army, Shadow had ever seen. Gerald Robotnik's designs may have been very old but they were ingenious. The robots were incredibly difficult to stop and even harder to destroy, and that was back on the Ark. But here on the planet, where the Artificial Chaos was significantly stronger, it could potentially be impossible. Especially alone.

Alone!

Shadow shook himself. He wouldn't normally have taken this on, on his own. As he thought, he was now just beginning to realise what that something was, that was missing. The fog on his mind was finally lifting, but didn't get a chance to investigate further as the ugly, fat Human approached him. Eggman was sat in his Egg Mobile, a large metallic flying pod, that he traveled everywhere in. He was looking extremely pleased, his egg-shaped body lounging back in its red, black and yellow clothing, his pince-nez sunglasses on his large red nose gleaming and his large moustachecurled. He stroked it. He was at the head of his robot army, but was covered in bandages from where Shadow had Chaos Blasted him right in the face. He looked as though he'd only just survived. Ignoring this, he smiled evilly.

"Ah, your awake. I'd heard rumour you'd survived." He leered. Shadow smirked in return. He wasn't surprised at all at that. Eggman had had Tails' House bugged for years, nothing there ever went unnoticed. But Shadow did have a problem. He was running through some serious calculations in his head. Even with absolutely everyone in Tails' House at his side, the chances of them winning the upcoming fight were not in their favour. Eggman was now that powerful.

Shadow growled. He hated entering into a battle with the odds so heavily stacked against him. He'd rather not fight at all. He folded his arms, the other Sapients from Tails' House were now gathered around him. He growled at Eggman.

"So what is it to you?" He hissed. "Whether I live or die?" He spat, very coldly, slowly returning back to his old self. Eggman huffed, looking somewhat putout.

"What's the point of having a fight without some decent competition?" He spat. He pointed to the other Sapients around Shadow. "Oh, these are good." He grinned. "But your better." He hissed.

Shadow smirked evilly, taking the compliment to the objections of the others. He didn't care. He put his hands into the quills, and to his delight, the two fully loaded semi-automatic revolvers were still there. He curled his lip. He looked up at Eggman.

"Yes I am!" He hissed, and promptly vanished.

Chaos Control.

Shadow didn't have a Chaos Emerald. To Chaos Control, it required one fully working Chaos Emerald, but a huge amount of concentration. He didn't need an Emerald, there was enough Artificial Chaos all around him to compensate. The concentration alone was enough. He instantly teleported, reappearing directly behind Eggman, stood in the ledge of his Egg Mobile, a gun to back of his head.

The other Sapients were stunned, but Eggman was taken by storm. He wasn't expecting Shadow to have grown in power as much as himself. If he could teleport at will, what else could he do? As the king of Chaos, potentially anything under this Artificial Chaos shield.

Stalemate!

Eggman had to think of something and quickly, otherwise Shadow would kill him. The Black Hedgehog had Chaos Blast him, to kill him in cold blood would be absolutely nothing. He was fighting fire with fire, and it wasn't something Eggman was used to. He was sweating.

Shadow just didn't care anymore. He'd found his quarry. His eyes were fixed. His finger on the trigger. His killer instinct's flared. Killing Eggman outright would solve everything, as far as he was concerned. Nothing was going to stop him now.

Then through the silence, a voice rang out.

"SHADOW!" It bellowed.

It rang out across the countryside, crystal clear, and vibrant. Everyone turned. Stood on an outcrop, was the last person everyone expected to see. His bright green eyes were fixed on Shadow as his emasculateroyal blue quills swayed in the breeze. His white gloved hands and arms were out wide and his torso was heaving. His long legs were standing strong with their cherry red shoes with the famous red stripes.

Sonic!

Everyone stared. Shadow took one look at that Blue Hedgehog and swore very loudly. He completely forgot about killing Eggman. He smirked in absolute evil delight, at the sheer downright cheek of what he was doing. It was Sonic who have been missing. For Shadow could see what others couldn't and he was relived that he was alright. But Eggman completely panicked, backing off so suddenly that Shadow lost his footing and toppled off the back of the Egg Mobile. He was absolutely white, panting heavily.

"No, no, no, no." He stammered. "Your alive? No, that's not possible. Your dead. I watched you die." He gasped. He was backing away, forcing Shadow to move and retreat. The Black Hedgehog ran back to Tails and the others, who were going mad, about to chase of down Sonic. He held them back.

"Don't!" He spat, unable to remove the smirk off his face. This was brilliant. For the first time ever, they didn't argue with him. He'd somehow finally managed to gain their trust. But they weren't happy about it. Shadow smirked broadened. He told them to wait. Soon, all would be revealed.

Sonic was walking down off his outcrop and towards Eggman, who was now fleeing in fear. He then ran after him. Eggman then proceeded to take his entire army and retreat back to the territoryfrom where he came. Sonic then stopped and blew very large raspberries at him, causing Shadow to face-palm. Then subsequentlyhide a very large scoff. It was that funny, even for him.

Then came the victory dance. Shadow rolled his eyes.

Enough!

He called Sonic over. The Blue Hedgehog came bouncing across. He was absolutely ecstatic.

"I love Artificial Chaos." He squealed. "It does some seriously weird and wonderful things to ectoplasm." He giggled. Knuckles stared.

"Wait!" He stammered. "Ectoplasm!" He gasped. The cogs were slowly turning. Sonic giggled even more and Shadow scoffed again. For he could see Sonic for what he truly was, even through the very elaborateillusion. Once a ghost, always a ghost. Even if he didn't look like it. The realistic, life-like vision was extremely good. Sonic then stood very still and closed his eyes, and turned back into his old pearly-white see-through self.

Everyone was stunned. Shadow, not so much. His powers had grown with the Artificial Chaos, it was no surprise that the ghost's had as well.

Sonic was bouncing about in absolute delight.

"I scared away Eggman." He chanted, but Shadow curled his lip, cutting across the annoying Hedgehog.

"You do know it won't last long, once he realises the truth." He hissed. But Sonic shrugged.

"Yeah, well. At least it'll give us a bit of time to prepare a counterattack." He added.

Shadow thought. A counterattack? They were going to need all the time they could get to plan. Eggman now was more powerful then ever and Shadow didn't foresee Tails' House surviving the upcoming fight. It was too much of a target. Shadow spat, the consequences of his actions did run deep, and Tails may end up paying for it. It wasn't fair. Shadow was only now beginning to understand what it meant being a 'hero', even though he never, ever considered himself one. Sonic was the hero, as far as he was concerned. He sighed. With Sonic a ghost, it would eventually come down to him verses Eggman. Could he really kill him? Eggman did resurrecthim after all. He'd done a lot of things for him over the years but the Human had also mentally tortured him. Did Shadow hate him enough? Potentially yes, but Sonic had to also let him kill him first. Shadow rolled his eyes. That would be a different matter. One he would deal with in due course.

He looked at the ghost. He was hovering just above the ground, his legs tapering of into a point. He was still very please with himself. Shadow was confused. How did he make it out of the Eclipse Cannon? Sonic saw Shadow watching him, and move right up to him, rounding on him.

"What did you do?" He spat. Shadow stared. What did he mean? Sonic was heaving with emotion. "No, seriously though. What did you do? When I dived into the Eclipse Cannon, I had no intention of coming back." He gulped. "But the Powers-That-Be..." He stammered. "They heard you, and took both our sacrifices as payment and granted you your wish." He gasped. "Thats why I'm still here. The Powers-That-Be placed me inside your body so that the Chaos I generated would slowly heal you. Looks like I'm still saving your behind." He shrugged. But the ghost continued. "I awoke at the same time you did." He added. Shadow raised an eyebrow. That explained why the regeneration migraines weren't very painful, if Sonic was involved. But the Blue Hedgehog sighed. "But I hid, because I wasn't sure if you ready to see me at that point, and when I saw your face-offagainst Eggman, I decided to intervene, using some new found skills I'd discovered." He grinned.

Everyone stared at Shadow. He knew why. They all wanted to know the answer. Knuckles sighed, finally speaking up for everyone.

"So, what did you wish for?" He asked. Shadow growled and aggressivelyblew him off. It was a far too much of an intimate a question for him to ever answer. But he looked at Sonic and their eyes met. Both Hedgehogs nodded. They both understood. Shadow had given Sonic his immortality as his the first half of his dying wish. It was enough to bring him back from non-existence as a ghost, but not enough to resurrecthim from the dead. He'd been gone for too long. Shadow also understood, why Sonic hadn't been mentioned since he woke up a few days ago. If the ghost had passed into non-existence, his friends would have just simply have forgotten all about him until he showed himself.

Then Shadow thought about the second half of his wish, for Sonic to not be alone. The Powers-That-Be must have asked him to choose a companion. He was incredibly honoured to have been chosen, but not that surprised really. They two of them relied on each other too much, even if one of them was a ghost.

Shadow smirked. It made life interesting, or in Sonic's case, afterlife interesting. They now shared Shadow's immortality. Even though he still found Sonic incredibly irritating, he was very glad to have him around. They were spending the rest of eternity together. Shadow rolled his eyes. Yes, he could live with that. Just.

But he very much had something else on his mind, mainly the word 'afterlife' in reference to Sonic. It reminded him of something, that the ghost had obviously completely forgotten about. Shadow was still staring at the Sonic, to the ghost's utter irritation.

"What?" He spat. Shadow knew what, and it was something they had to deal with, sooner rather then later. He lent right into the ghost.

"Follow me!" He hissed coldly, relishing the air of mystery. Leaving the others behind, Shadow walked down the hill from Tails' House, past the wooded area and towards Eggman's territory. He looked into that woodland and it significantly reminded him of something. Something that could prove very followed, but was extremely confused. Shadow then proceeded to start walking up a nearby hill just inside Eggman's territory. Towards a large tree and the remains of destroyed Base. He recognisedthe tree and started searching the ground. He very quickly found his quarry. Sonic was still confused.

"Why here?" He asked. "This destroyed Base is completely worthless." He shrugged.

Shadow smirked. This had nothing to do with the Base. He pointed to the ground, just beneath the tree.

"That!" He spat. "What are we doing with it?" He hissed. Sonic looked down and swore, absolutely horrified, putting both hands over his mouth.

It was his body.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten – Beginnings**

Sonic's body had seen better days. had been frozen solid during the snow storms but when the Artificial Chaos shield was created, the weather returned the normal. It was late Summer. It must have taken some time for Sonic's body to finally thaw, but after three months, it had begun to rot. It was full of maggots and smelled, very bad. It was very grostique.

Shadow himself cringed. He was used to dealing with dead bodies, but even he found this hard to stomach. This was especially considering who it was. He looked at Sonic, eager to get the job done.

"What are we doing with it?" He asked again, frustrated. Sonic turned away unable to bare seeing himself in such a poor state. The was incredibly glad he wasn't in there, anymore. Still very grossed out, he eventually answered Shadow.

"Bury it!" He spat, and then looked back and sighed. "Please." He added. Shadow nodded, but frowned.

"Where?" He asked. "Do you have a family grave site?" He shrugged. It wasn't an unreasonable question. The House of Robotnik had one. Shadow knew it well. It was where Maria was buried. Sonic looked up at him, tears rolling down his face.

"I don't have any family!" He sniffed. Shadow was very surprised, and realised that he had never actually asked him this before. But he was very confused.

"What do you mean?" He smirked. "Everyone born has family." He spat. That was technically true. You can't be born without parents. Shadow knew this as he didn't have family, but he wasn't born either. Sonic growled.

"Well, I don't." He spat, and then sighed. "It's a total mystery. You know more about your origins then I know about mine. I've always envied you for it." Shadow raised an eyebrow, but Sonic continued. "I was found as a newborn, still with the umbilicalcord attached, wrapped in a white blanket, in a whicker basket. No note. No nothing. No idea who left me there or why. Believe me, I've looked." He added.

Shadow was stunned, but quite easily believed that. That Sonic would have hunted the entire planet for absolutely anything to do with his origins, and from the look of his tears, had found absolutely nothing.

Shadow gritted his teeth. That was tough. To have no idea who you were or where you came from. Also his Super-Speed, the cartilageskeleton, the Chaos generation, his life-force as the Source, and even his unusual colour. Where did it all come from? Was he even Mobian? Shadow shrugged. He wasn't and realised that they had no way of knowing, especially now that Sonic was a ghost. He thought about his own origins. They weren't the best, but at least, he knew them. He turned to the ghost.

"Look." He sighed. "I will help you somehow find the answers you seek, but right now, you need to decide where you want to be buried." He hissed. He then cringedagain from the smell. "Sooner rather then later, please!" He spat.

He began to walk away. Sonic was stunned and raced after him.

"Hey!" He spat. "Where are you going?" He asked. Shadow stopped and turned to face the ghost.

"Home." He spat. "I've been thinking about where to make my new home down here on the planet. Well, when I walked past that wooded area near Tails' House, it reminded me that there's an abandoned Base beneath it." He smirked. "That I think, will do nicely, with some work." He added. Sonic raised an eyebrow. He knew the place. It was where he'd used his Chaos to regenerate Shadow. He scoffed.

"That a lot of work, Shads." He sniggered. "Are you sure?" He shrugged. Shadow growled. He was very sure. He hissed at the ghost.

"When you decide where you want to buried, let me know." He spat. "I have work to do." He leered, and stormed off to the woods, determined to find the entrance to the Base again. He left Sonic in a pickle. He had a very grostique body that desperately needed burying and no idea where to put it.

Shadow sighed and left him to it. He had his own stuff to do. It took him the rest of day to find the entrance of the abandoned Base in the woods. It was dark, by the time he finally found the pressure pad. He activated it, gaining entrance, and realised very quickly, the sheer scale of the task ahead of him. The Base was in a far worser condition then he remembered. Sonic was right, it was a lot of work.

Shadow sighed, but it wasn't nothing he hadn't handled before. Parts of the Ark had also been in this much mess, and he'd sorted those out. Plus the Base itself wasn't very big. He set to work.

Two weeks went by.

That's how long it took for Sonic to finally decide where he wanted his body to be buried. He hadn't seen Shadow for that entire time, but knew exactly where he was. He didn't tell his friends, either. He wasn't sure how well they'd take to finding out that Shadow was now Tails' new neighbour. He also knew how busy he was, so left him alone, and instead asked his friends to organise the funeral. This didn't go down to well, when they saw the state of his body but they obliged anyway.

When the date, time and location of the funeral was set. Time to tell Shadow. It wasn't until the morning of the funeral itself did Sonic finally pluck up the courage to go and look for him.

He reached the edge of the wooded area, near Tails' House and looked in. They felt very different then before. Properlybecause this was now Shadow's home. He sighed, heading in, his pearly-white ghostly frame shining light all around in the darkened woodland. He to was looking for the entrance and it took some finding as Shadow hadn't changed anything externally to indicate that he was here. This didn't surprise Sonic. Shadow was an intensely private Hedgehog, and didn't want visitors.

Sonic sighed again, this time, nervously, as he stared down at the pressure pad. Shadow had asked him to tell him about his funeral, so the Black Hedgehog shouldn't bite his head off.

He swallowed his nerves and dived down into the pressure pad, he passed straight through it and down into the ground. After a few seconds of passing though solid rock, he came out into open space. He looked around. He was in a brand new, fully refurbished, absolutely spotless Base. Sonic's jaw dropped.

Wow!

The parts of the Base that had collapsed, where bare electrical wires were hanging everywhere and where the ceiling was bowing in places, had all been repaired. Solid metal plating now lined the walls, floors and ceiling. Sonic floated through the Base absolutely stunned until he found the main Console station. He looked up. Where the ceiling had collapsed in on it had also been repaired and the Console itself had been heavily upgraded, with more monitors and more power. The monitors seemed to showing images from all over Mobius and the Ark. It looked like Shadow had rerouted the Ark's Main Console to here. It was seriously impressive.

Shadow was sat in a large black leather chair at the Console, facing the screens, with his back to Sonic. But the Black Hedgehog knew he was there.

"Well, you took your time." He leered at the ghost, without turning round. But Sonic was still stunned.

"This place was incredible!" He gasped. He was amazed at what Shadow had managed to get done in just two weeks. Shadow turned around in his chair to face the ghost. He was smirking, but he looked very tired.

"I'm glad you like it. I'm very pleased with the end results as well." He hissed, sounding shattered. Sonic was still stunned but Shadow was getting frustrated. He spat at him.

"Well?" He hissed. "Have you decided yet?" He growled, his tiredness triggering his temper. Sonic bit his lip, looking nervous. He hovered straight, his hands in front of him, his head down. He nodded.

"Yes. My funeral is this afternoon." He said sheepishly.

Shadow was very surprised. He was expecting to told long before now, as he had planned on helping out. But as he watched the ghost, he noticed something. Sonic's nerves seemed to run a lot deeper then just simply talking to him. Shadow could see that this funeral was forcing Sonic to properly contemplate his own death for the first time. Not only did Sonic now realise that he was actually dead but that there was no going back, either. Shadow understood. He may have been immortal but he had also experienced death. He fully appreciatedhow deep it ran.

Shadow shook off his tiredness and got to his feet, walking towards the ghost. He stood beside him, folding his arms.

"You alright?" He hissed, somewhat concerned. Shadow didn't like to see Sonic like this. He nodded, but the tears ran.

"Yeah." He said. "But I just need time." He sighed. Shadow smirked and his lip curled, he walked out in front of the ghost. He rolled his eyes.

"We're immortal, you idiot. We're got all the time in the world." He hissed, the smirk broadening. He was winding Sonic up. It worked.

"Hey!" He spat. "Who are you calling in 'idiot'?" He growled. Sonic wasn't happy.

Shadow leered.

"Why the only spineless one here." He hissed, referencing Sonic's lack of substance. He growled, but Shadow raised an eyebrow in return. "You know." He added. "I could have called you worser things then 'idiot'." He sneered.

Sonic grinned. That was very true. He was well aware of just how bad Shadow's language could really get. But he was still nervous. So nervous in fact that he actually cracked.

"I know what we need." He suddenly blurted out. "A song!" He giggled.

Oh no! Shadow singing please. He just couldn't bare it. Not in his new house anyway. But before Shadow could stop him, Sonic had started with arguablethe most perfect song for the occasion.

"The toe bone is connected to the neck bone. The neck bone is connected to the hip bone. The hip bone is connected to the head bone." Sonic sang. Shadow growled and put his hands over his hears. He headed towards the teleporter and exit out of his new home. But the ghost kept singing.

"The head bone is connected to the shin bone. The shin bone is connected to the shoulder bone. The shoulder bone is connected to the ankle bone." He continued. He followed Shadow out of the Base and into the woodlands. The ghostly essence light up the whole area. But he still kept singing.

"The ankle bone is connected to the back bone. The back bone is connected to the heel bone." He wailed. Except this time Shadow noticed that the song he was singing wasn't quite right. He growled.

"Sonic?" He hissed, but the ghost ignored him, and still went on, this time dancing to it.

"The heel bone is connected to the thigh bone. The thigh bone is connected to the foot bone." He sang, traveling through the woods at great speed, Shadow followed him. Rouge was at the edge of the woods waiting for them. She must have spotted Sonic's ghostly light. With the Artificial Chaos shield, Sonic could now be again seen by everyone. Shadow was close to breaking point with the ghost, getting incredibly frustrated with him.

"Sonic!" He hissed again, very coldly. They were practically next to Rouge when Shadow snapped. But the ghost still didn't stop.

"The foot bone is connected to the knee bone." He jigged, but Shadow cut across him, completely loosing his temper.

"SONIC!" He shouted, finally silencing the ghost. He just looked at him. Shadow was heaving. "I may not be a doctor, but I do have enough medical knowledge to break every bone in your body while naming them. If your going to sing that dam song, can you at least sing it in the correct bloody order." He growled. He wasn't happy.

Sonic giggled, so did Rouge, who heard the commotion. But the ghost huffed.

"Well, considering I don't have a skeleton, I can sing it in whatever order I want." He spat, and with that sped off into the distance, leaving Shadow and Rouge alone. The Black Hedgehog still growling. Rouge, however, was still smiling and began giggling. Shadow leered at her, asking with a look, what the problem was. She smiled.

"It's you two." She grinned. "Your as bad as each other." She laughed. Shadow stared, unimpressed. He didn't find it funny.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" He hissed. The Bat gave him a sideways look.

"Nothing!" She defended. "Just don't change, thats all." She shrugged. Then she looked in the direction Sonic speeded off to. Both of them began to follow. She thought of the ghost.

"I take it he's still nervous?" She asked, referencing Sonic. Shadow nodded. It was the end of a chapter for him. It was a massive deal. He sighed.

"I guess witnessing your own funeral is a lot to handle." He shrugged. Rouge guided Shadow down the hill from Tails' House towards Eggman's territory. He was beginning to wonder where they were going. Rouge looked at him, and huffed.

"Oh." She spat. "And I suppose you would know." She huffed. With Shadow's reputation, anything was possible. He smirked.

"No." He leered. "But I have woken up in a morguebefore now." He hissed. Rouge stopped and stared. She put both hands over her mouth, hiding a grin. She too, had seen Shadow regenerate, and knew how much pain he woke in and how grumpy, and potentially dangerous he could be.

They have moved towards the direction of a tree on a hill, near one of Eggman's Base's and began to walk up it. She swore.

"Oh no! How badly did the pathologisttake it?" She asked, giggling. Shadow smirk broadened, remembering the incident well. His eyes lit up. Let just say that the Authorities have left him alone since then, even if he looked dead. He did nearly destroy the hospital.

"Very!" He sniggered, but then he stared.

They had arrived. At the top of the hill, the burial ceremony had already started. Sonic's body had been placed into a coffin. Nothing fancy, but the lid was tight closed. It was being slowly lowered a deep hole in the ground, beneath the tree. A local priest was conducting the funeral, and the grave was surrounded by Sonic's friends, all in black. Only now did Shadow notice that Rouge herself was also in black, and that the only person who didn't need to dress for the occasion, was himself.

Shadow looked at Rouge, somewhat taken aback.

"Wait, this is exactly where he died!" He spat. He growled. It took Sonic two weeks to choose...here. Shadow was again unimpressed. Rouge tried to calm him.

"Yes." She stammered. "But Sonic said he'd grown very fond of that tree, and that here was as good a place as any." She hurried. Shadow looked up at it. It was stunning. Its white late Summer blossom, and small green leaves blowing slightly the wind. But he understood Sonic's point. He'd almost died himself beneath this tree. He sighed, and Rouge was relieved. He looks back at the funeral and notices something missing.

"No grave stone?" He asked. Rouge looked up.

"No." She shrugged. "He says he doesn't want one. But a half dozen letters have been carved into the tree." She added. Shadow raised an eyebrow, smirking, wondering what these were. Rouge continued.

"S. H." She sighed. That was obvious. "And G. B. N. F." She counts out. She frowned. She had no idea what those meant. But Shadow did, instantly. His smirk broadens.

"Gone But Not Forgotten!" He sniggered. Shadow folded his arms, still smirking. Sonic was being very full of himself here. He was a ghost, to remain on Mobius forever. He was going to make dam sure that somebody forgot him. How could you forget someone whose ghost irritated you so badly?

Then Shadow looked up, and around the funeral site. Only now did he notice that a certain someone was very conspicuousby their absence. The ghost was nowhere in sight. Rouge also notice that Sonic was missing, and began to look for him, as the funeral was ending.

Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust.

With the burial ceremony finished, several of Sonic's friends began filling in the grave. Including Tails and Knuckles. Shadow sighed. Sonic was close, he could feel it. He thought. That had been getting to him. That feeling. He could feel Sonic's presence before he saw him. He shrugged. Considering they now shared his immortality, vise versa could also be true. But the funeral was under a tree at the top of bear hill, just covered in grass, there was nothing to hide behind. But as several people left towards Tails' House for the wake, Shadow stayed put and scanned the area.

Rouge had given up trying to find Sonic and had joined the others. Soon Shadow was alone, Sonic's grave filled in and decorated with flowers. He looked at it. It was pleasant enough, rather fitting for the Blue Hedgehog. But Shadow still couldn't shake the feeling that he still wasn't alone. He looked again, this time concentrating hard and soon found his quarry.

He'd been hiding in plain sight. But to Shadow, his Chaos Aura finally gave him away, even if he was invisible. It was the reason why he didn't notice it as first, he wasn't looking for it. He'd been watching the funeral, but hadn't wanted to talk to anyone.

He looked very somber.

Shadow smirked. Today was not the day for that. Yes, he'd seen his own funeral but that chapter was behind him now. A new beginning lay ahead of him, one that Shadow was now very much a part of. But the ghost wasn't paying attention, he was still staring at his grave. Shadow's smirked, his lip curled. This was just too good. He had a reputation of moving a silently as a ghost. Time to prove it.

"Boo!" He hissed, rather loudly at Sonic's right side. The ghost jumped a mile. Swearing very loudly, throwing several very harsh expletives deleted at Shadow. He sniggered, taking them all as compliments. Ghosts were famous for scaring people, well, he'd just scared the ghost. It was worth it. Sonic growled, folded his arms and turned away. Then his eyes widened when he realised something.

"Hey." He blurted out. "You can see me!" He gasped. He was still completely invisible. Yet another new ability. Shadow smirked.

"I can see your Chaos Aura, rather then you." He hissed. "No amount of invisibility can hide that." He leered. Sonic looked at Shadow and smiled at him. Knowing the Black Hedgehog couldn't see it. This was why he'd chosen Shadow as his eternal companion. No one did things quite like Shadow. His incredibly dark and very sarcastic sense of humour, (yes, he had one) absolutely creased Sonic. Even though Shadow could be very cruel, Sonic did find him very funny. Most of the time.

Shadow was watching him, with his arms folded. Sonic returned to normal and looked at the Black Hedgehog. He was waiting for him. Loyal to the very end. Sonic sighed. He expected nothing less of him. But Shadow was right. Time to move on and head to Tails' House for the wake. Everyone was properly waiting for them.

The moved down the hill and towards the woodlands, and Tails' House. On this beautiful sunny day, the front door was open and people were mingling about both inside and outside the house. Both Knuckles and Tails spotted them as then approached and came out to meet them. Tails especially was full of mixed emotions, both sad that Sonic had been buried, but happy that his ghost was still around. But Knuckles looked at the Hedgehogs.

"So what now, for our resident Ghost and Darkness?" He smirked. Sonic and Shadow looked at each other. That was rather good. Sonic giggled. He was still cracking up somewhat.

"Ooo!" He grinned. "That sounds like a detective agency. Like The Faker and The Hero, Deceased." He smirked. But Shadow's eyes narrowed and he growled.

That hit a serious nerve. The Chaos Darkness within Shadow flared. His eyes glowed a deep, crimson, blood red. Sonic hadn't used the nickname 'Faker' in years. Not since their first meeting, mainly because Shadow had warned him against it on pain of death. Sonic's smiled vanished when he realised he'd gone too far.

"Ok, maybe Idiot, Deceased." He stammered. That was slightly better but Shadow didn't fancy a detective agency. That would mean being in direct competition to the Chaotix and they were way too musical for him. He liked his privacy, and silence.

He folded his ears back, and still with his now glowing eyes narrowed, whispered something at Sonic that was both very cold and extremely vulgar. It silenced the ghost, and stunned the others. Sonic sniffed.

"Sorry." He said, genuinely. He really didn't mean to offend. Shadow accepted and nodded.

Stunned, both Knuckles and Tails decided to leave the Hedgehogs to it and headed back to the wake. Sonic, deciding that he'd temporarily had enough of Shadow, very quickly followed them. He turned into a ball-of-light and speeded away, leaving a trail of ectoplasm behind him. The Black Hedgehog was alone. He smirked.

'He'll be back." He thought. 'He always was.' He added.

And that was the point. No matter what Shadow did. No matter how unbelievablyevil he was. Sonic always came back. He could rely on it. He could rely on him. Shadow thought back to what Knuckles had said. 'The resident Ghost and Darkness!'

He liked it. It had a nice ring to it. Darkness by name. Darkness by nature. He smirked. But still, what did lie ahead to him and Sonic?

He sighed. Sonic? What of the ghost's origins? Shadow was certain he wasn't Mobian, but where did he come from? He thought. Would there ever find the truth? He smirked. They did have all eternity to find out.

Then there was that revolting Human. What was it going to take to defeat Eggman? He had to admit he didn't know. He looked around at the horizon. The clear cloudless sky really now showing off its new green colour. He sighed.

The Artificial Chaos shield. How long would that last? Shadow had programed it to run indefinitely, but that was not ever was.

Then his eyes fell back on Tails' House and the commotion that had just sprung up there. He was being signal over. He was going to get an ear full for being rude to Sonic. He rolled his eyes, the usual stuff then. Life returning back to normal.

He didn't mind as he slowly wondered down towards the house.

Because it meant one simple thing.

With Sonic a ghost, and now an immortal.

He wasn't alone, anymore.


End file.
